Elusive Connections: Ritual and Reconstruction in Jayden Stevens' 'A Family'

A lonely man seeks to construct a new family with paid actors and scripted interactions in Jayden Stevens' Ukrainian-shot feature debut. As Gabrielle O'Brien finds, the film not only offers an alien, sitcom-infused representation of human behaviour but also provides insights into the more constructed aspects of genuine familial relationships – particularly in its focus on the mediated images provided by home movies and photographs.

Additional keywords:
Ukraine, Yorgos Lanthimos, Dogtooth, The Lobster, Toni Erdmann, Howards End, sitcom, soap opera, MIFF Premiere Fund