This sinister Danish film noir character study is a chilling portrait of twisted family loyalty, told from the perspective of a young woman caught up in grief, trauma and desperation.

After losing her mother in a car accident, 17-year old Ida (Sandra Gulberg Kampp) moves in with her estranged aunt (Sidse Babett Knudsen, the Danish Prime Minister in the TV series Borgen) and her three grown-up sons, gladly providing a home for her orphaned teenage niece. However, Ida gradually realizes that they are actually vicious loan sharks and that her aunt is the grande dame of a coldblooded crime family, alongside her boys, “three variously unhinged male thugs” (Variety), who specialize in debt collection.

It is through Ida’s eyes that we witness escalating hostility and glimpses of the secrets and lies that her mother wanted to keep her away from. In a home where love and violence coalesce, a susceptible Ida is dragged down an insidious path, as she observes the family behavior around the kitchen table, we find ourselves sharing her dilemma and surprise about her aunt’s unlawful activities. Kampp is riveting as an emotionally fragile, grieving young woman who is grateful to her new relations, but conflicted about their family business: extortion and violent intimidation.

When an unforeseen murder pressures the family and their loyalty to each other, tension builds as love and violence become impossible to separate. Ida is faced with the same question her mother faced before her: What are you willing to sacrifice for your family? This sinister Danish film noir character study, the debut film from director Jeanette Nordahl, is a chilling portrait of twisted family loyalty, told from the perspective of a young woman caught up in grief, trauma and desperation.

Screened in Danish with English subtitles.

Jeanette Nordahl  |  Denmark  | 2020  |  88 minutes