Dir: Nathaniel Kahn. US. 2003. 116mins.

One of the 12 films shortlisted for the best documentary feature Academy Award and a healthy box office performer to the tune of $0.4m in its first two months of domestic release through New Yorker Films, My Architect is yet another theatrically marketable documentary to emerge from the US. Nathaniel Kahn's personal exploration of the life, work and death of his father, legendary architect Louis I Kahn, stands in the front ranks of the remarkable class of 2003 alongside The Fog Of War, Capturing The Friedmans and My Flesh And Blood.

The film doesn't sound overtly enthralling from its title or subject matter, but Louis I Kahn's personal life - involving three children by three different women and a mysterious death alone and unidentified in the men's room of Penn Station in New York City - imbue it with a sense of mystery which is exactly that. And Nathaniel Kahn's unique position - as the architect's only son by his second mistress, seeking out old acquaintances and relatives of his father - gives the film a human interest which is often startlingly emotional.

Discerning international audiences, driven by exceptional reviews, will be drawn to the film, as they are at present in North America, and the film warrants limited international theatrical platforms if only as a stepping stone to TV exposure. Certainly in an educational context, the film's insight into Kahn's life and work will prove timeless.

Nathaniel and his mother Harriet Pattison lived for years on sporadic visits from Kahn, who remained married to and living with his wife Esther until the day he died. When he was found dead in 1974, Pattison believed he was about to leave Esther and move in with her and Nathaniel.

Nearly 30 years later, Kahn Jr sets out to discover the truth of his father's character. An immigrant from Estonia to Philadelphia, Kahn was badly burned in an accident as a child and lived always with a badly scarred face. But his quiet charisma and brilliance as a pianist and architect earned him constant attention from women including Esther who bore his first child Sue Ann and a young designer Anne Tyng who bore his second Alexandra.

In the 50s and 60s, he received enormous acclaim for his bold modern buildings such as the Richards Medical Towers and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies but he never achieved the recognition he wanted or arguably deserved.

The film examines his buildings in loving detail and the final stretch, when Nathaniel travels to Bangladesh, to see Louis Kahn's crowning achievement - the Capital Complex at Dhaka, Bangladesh - illuminate the man in ways mere interviews cannot.

Whether talking to his mother or half-sisters or IM Pei and Frank Gehry, Nathaniel's work is a profound portrait of a man and artist, which possesses an emotional punch lacking in most fictional US cinema today.

The men and women featured in My Architect are so patently intelligent, warm and witty that the film also, inadvertently, serves as a pleasant reminder of the rich cultural life of a country whose current administration undermines it.

Prod cos: The Louis Kahn Project, New York Foundation For The Arts
US dist: New Yorker Films in association with HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films
Int'l sales: The Film Sales Company
Exec prods: Susan Rose Behr, Andrew Clayman, Darrell Friedman
Prods: Susan Rose Behr, Nathaniel Kahn
Screenplay and narration: Nathaniel Kahn
Cinematography: Bob Richman
Ed: Sabine Krayenbuhl
Music: Joseph Vitarelli