Dalecarlians

Urban thirty-something Mia (Sofia Helin, seen last year in Four Shades of Brown) goes to celebrate her father's 70th birthday in her home village in Dalecarlia, the countryside to the north of Stockholm. The hard-working information technologist leaves with some reluctance and a slight hangover for her parental home. While she has forgotten many people from her home village, they still seem to remember exactly who Mia is. Her parents don't know much about the kind of life that Mia leads in Stockholm; her two slightly older sisters have, or had, a family life that completely consumed them. While the preparations are made for the party, on her round of the village Mia meets old acquaintances and old conflicts, tensions and ingrained mechanisms come back to life. Maria Blom, making her début, sketches in a subtle and moving way how people can change when they leave their place of birth and how family members can be so used to each other that they don't really see each other any more. Using the typical and strange characteristics of the Dalecarlians - right down to the cheeky kind of humour that can only be taken from the well-meaning and beloved - her film is both mocking and loving. Blom: 'Darecarlians are so full of themselves. They buy a summerhouse half an hour away so they don't have to leave their province.' By the way, Blom herself has now also moved to Dalecarlia, where part of her family comes from. (GT)