Three sisters feeling the stagnation of their lives. Their helpless husbands and the children, frightened by their parents' arguing. And then the farewell letter from the father, in which he writes that he will take his own life.
It is the calm that captivates the spectator. The calm of the camera, the editing, the way the director watches. With her tableau-like images, Nanouk Leopold first sets up a framework for her shattered, wounded figures, a framework in which they might be able to find their way back to themselves and then perhaps to each other. In front of her unflinching camera the characters' tension can melt away, bit by bit. Once, for example, the oldest sister is looking at herself in the mirror. Looking at the traces that life has left on her, she suddenly seems to make her peace with aging. Even if the film tells a family drama, the tone of voice is never pessimistic, the shots always seem to find a way out. Time and again, one space leads to the next, time and again light from a window falls on one of the figures.
Anke Leweke
Production: Circe Films, Amsterdam; Cosmokino, Brussels
Screenplay: Nanouk Leopold
Cinematographer: Richard van Oosterhout
Set Design: Elsje de Bruijn
Editor: Katharina Wartena
Cast: Tamar van den Dop, Fedja van Huêt, Jan Decleir, Karina Smulders, Catherine ten Bruggencate, Piet Kamerman, Oscar van Woensel
Format: 35mm (shot on 16mm), Cinemascope, Color
Running Time: 93 minutes
Language: Dutch
