PRODIGAL SONS

Early on in this very personal film, the audience learns that the director, Kimberly Reed, was once known as Paul, a star quarterback in high school before a sex-change operation. Reed's gender reassignment, however, turns out to be a mere side note - and hardly the most surprising one - in this exploration of her family's bizarre past. While visiting her hometown of Helena, Montana, to attend a high-school reunion, she reconnects with her adopted brother Marc, whom she hasn't seen in more than a decade. Growing up, Marc lived in the shadow of his overachieving then-brother Paul (now Kimberly). Since suffering a traumatic brain injury at 21, Marc is prone to mercurial mood swings and violent behavior. But Marc takes center stage after it is revealed that he is the biological grandson of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. The jaw-dropping revelations continue as Kimberly and Marc travel to Croatia to visit Welles' longtime partner Oja Kodar in order to learn more about Marc's mysterious origins.
The raw emotions and sibling resentments uncovered in Prodigal Sons make it one of the strangest first-person documentaries in recent years, and one that is sure to ignite many \"nature versus nurture\" arguments among viewers. (Alex Williams)