Home Recordings

It's a scene that takes place in millions of living rooms, but the Finnish Mari Soppela and her Dutch husband Leo Anemaet decided to capture it on film. The couple and their two children lead a quiet life in Amsterdam. They both work from home, she as a filmmaker, he as a composer. But something is lacking in their relationship. To start with, they have hardly any physical contact. She blames him for being completely domesticated and refusing to do fun things with her. He feels she should let things run their course more, which is another way of saying, "Leave me alone." These are the ingredients for a veritable midlife crisis. Home Recordings shows Mari and Leo as they squabble in lengthy sessions on their orange couch. In fact, it looks a lot like relationship therapy. These scenes alternate with home video-like footage of the (happy?) years they used to spend together: Getting a breath of fresh air on the beach, taking the children to Finland, several moves. The result is an intimate portrait of a laborious, perhaps impossible relationship that, as director Mari Soppela says in the voice-over, suffers from a lack of intimacy.