Two sisters — with very different experiences and memories — come together for a celebration in their parents’ immaculate old house, now occupied by the eldest, Karen (Maren Eggert). Impenetrable to her children and husband, she is contrasted with the jovial Julie (Britta Hammelstein), enamored with her partner and their baby. The family reunion is punctuated by the thorniest barbs imaginable, thrown by everyone at everyone. But everything that’s tense will have to be let go.
The warm colors of the kitchen, the food preparation, the view of the garden. Everything seems idyllic in Karen’s home, and that’s what fascinates us at first. The mastery of the decoration, the delicacy of the gestures. Yes, everything seems idyllic until the sentences the characters exchange become increasingly cutting. This is not the bucolic place we imagined or anticipated. Ramon and Silvan Zürcher (the film is presented as being by the two brothers, with Ramon having duties as director, screenwriter and editor, while Silvan is in charge of production) once again take on something characteristic of their filmography: a certain distance from the lives of their characters. But underneath this observant camera that hovers over everything, emotion and perturbation are ready to burst forth. And perhaps some catharsis.
Ana Cabral Martins
