If you can imagine Mike Leigh directing an In the Loop-esque deadpan comedy embedded within a British version of The Sopranos, in which Tony is an embittered ex-hippie in passive-aggressive conflict with his pot-dulled but surprisingly ruthless adult son, then you might be able to wrap your head around Down Terrace, which won the juried Best Picture and Best Screenplay prizes in the Next Wave competition at Fantastic Fest on Monday.

At the start of the film, 30-something Karl (Robin Hill, who also co-wrote with director Ben Weatley) and his father Bill (Robert Hill) get out of jail and set to work finding out who ratted them out to the police so they can seek revenge. That logline implies that Down Terrace is a lot more action-packed than it is; in fact, most of the film features father and son sitting around the house, drinking and smoking, idly bickering, jamming on their guitars, and waiting for the two or three associates who they suspect may have had something to do with it to drop in for a drink. If these guys were ever truly on-the-ball criminals (Bill makes it hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when he starts name dropping Timothy Leary), lethargy has set in. Karl seems particularly resentful of his role in the family business. A typical lament: “I was thinking I should avenge his death but — is this bad? — I just don’t want to.”

Meanwhile, Karl has just found out that Vanda, a girlfriend/prison penpal, is pregnant, with a child that may or may not be his but who, much to the chagrin of his parents, Karl intends to help raise regardless. As the family business gets increasingly messy, and Karl moves closer to Vanda in montages set to a discordant folk pop soundtrack, Down Terrace seems to be using the crime conceit as a Trojan Horse to transport a contemplation of fatherhood –– including the practical and psychological burdens passed down through nature and nurture, and the implications of breaking a destructive cycle — into a blend of genres hardly known for inviting contemplation. So the late inning evolution into a murderous lovers film comes as a surprise.

There’s been some debate as to why the film would world premiere at Fantastic Fest, being that, aside from a few scant moments of frank violence, it goes down obstinately without special effects, gore, or even traditional notions of fantasy. But what’s exciting about Down Terrace (which was produced by DVD distributor Mondo Macabre and features a number of British comedy character actors recognizable from roles on Saxondale, The Office, etc) is the ways in which it insistently muddles genre boundaries, injecting sentimentality where you might expect brutality, and vice versa.