Daily dread infuses the raw, claustrophobic story of a teenage carer looking after her troubled mother and little brother
Norwegian writer-director Camilla Strøm Henriksen’s impressive debut is an intelligent family drama refrigerated with horror-movie chills. Partly autobiographical, it’s the story of teenage carer Jill (Ylva Bjørkaas Thedin), who looks after her little brother and their depressed single mum. This is a family unlikely to show up on the radar of social services: Jill’s mum has had some success in the past as an artist; her dad is a famous jazz musician and rarely around.
The claustrophobic first half, with echoes of Polanski’s Repulsion, is confined almost entirely to Jill’s flat where mum Astrid (Maria Bonnevie) swings between depressive slumps and manic bursts of creativity. There’s psychological depth and rawness to these scenes that’s painful to watch. Feeling she’s a failure as an artist, Astrid moans about the meaningless of life. What about us, your kids, Jill asks. “It’s not enough.”