Craving comfort & stability in the midst of her father’s deteriorating health, Johanna’s small ritual of inviting a protection spirit into her birdhouse goes wrong when something dark moves in with them. A lonely, slightly surreal existence that picks up in the middle of this family’s struggle to face the monster of mortality & looming, inescapable grief, a Dutch-angled demon sinks in. From the perspective of an 11 year old, director Benjamin Finkel does a wicked job of placing us in a world that doesn’t feel fair. One that pairs visual isolation with sparse interactions outside the home, and the psychological prison of frustration & blame. All eyes on Ben.
Family screened as part of SXSW 2024.