Quiet Life

Sweden 2018, scenes of everyday family life. But it almost looks as if the father, mother and two daughters are only pretending that everything is perfect in their sparsely furnished apartment. A desperate attempt to fit in? Actually, the family is living in a state of limbo. They come from Russia, where the father was a victim of political persecution – something that he is unable to prove with solid evidence to the Swedish immigration authorities. His youngest daughter, Katja, who witnessed him being attacked, is supposed to testify for him. But she falls into a kind of coma, a symptom of the what is called "resignation syndrome", a condition known to befall children who have suffered traumatizing experiences of war and displacement. Katja is admitted to a clinic, where her parents are only allowed to visit as long as they don't disturb her with bad news. The stylized, austerely choreographed visual tableaux of the film allegorise the absurdity of the situation and show a family whose only constant in life is uncertainty.