‘Butterfly Jam’ Review: Barry Keoghan Plays An Upbeat But Reckless Dad In Kantemir Balagov’s Circassian Diaspora Drama

The machine has yet to be invented that can tie up all the loose ends in Kantemir Balagov’s third feature, a puzzling family drama set in the small, tight-knit community of Circassians in New Jersey. Such is the intimate nature of Balagov’s film that there’s no real indication of how large this diaspora is, or where these people come from and why; instead, Butterfly Jam zooms in on a fragile father-son relationship that touches on familiar issues of masculinity in crisis but never seems to take them anywhere new.

The most surprising aspect is the casting of Barry Keoghan, 33, as Azik, the father of a stocky 16-year-old, having recently played dad to a younger child in Andrea Arnold’s Bird (2024). Mathematically, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility — especially given Azik’s immaturity and recklessness — and it gets things off to a good start. Indeed, it all begins with the death of a father, as one of the film’s core characters, face unseen, arrives at the home of a professional mourner.

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