A family tree with rotten roots and no easy answers.
In this stylish Finnish drama, the secrets and desires of a family can no longer be suppressed. Mikko turns out to have a hereditary illness. Since then he has been worried. How long can he continue to run the family business that he and inherited from his father, just like his illness? And how does he tell his teenage daughter and adult son that they might have the wrong genes? The imaginative eight-year-old Lumi, adopted from China, also cannot get away from her roots.
Acting
Pertti Sveholm's crumbling patriarch is heartbreaking.
Direction
Saarela's restrained style lets silence scream.
Director
Saara Saarela
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Saara Saarela is one of Finland's few prominent female directors; this was her second feature after years in television.
The film deliberately contrasts Mikko's 'pure' Finnish bloodline disease with Lumi's chosen roots, questioning what inheritance really means.
FI
