
2010 · documentary · social
Directed by Andris Gauja58m2010
'Family Instinct' is a film about incest - an illegal act, social taboo and a violation of religious norms. Zanda is a 28-year-old woman, worn out by hard work. Surrounded by poverty and despair, she is trying to survive with her two children in a god-forsaken Latvian village. Her hardships can be traced back to living in a relationship with her brother Valdis. When Valdis is put in jail, the local community forces her to make a difficult choice: to stay with him or with her children. Despite her ill fortune, she manages to express her love for the children, still hoping to save her family. The film offers a tragicomic but highly authentic insight into the bleak reality of post-soviet era.
Our read: Family Instinct (2010) reads as a heavy, measured, grounded documentary · social entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.
Heavy, measured, measured documentary / social, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
“You want raw Latvian documentary on incest, poverty and taboo survival.”
Skip it tonight — You are sensitive to incest, suicide themes or child endangerment.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Family Instinct, with why →
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →