Resort in the French Alps, a Swedish family's ski week.

The vacation days are strictly punctuated: on the second day of skiing during the lunch break an avalanche threatens the lodge, creating a panic situation without apparently causing any consequences.

The family equilibrium is shaken by the husband's reaction; from the following day the wife does not hesitate to point this out.

The attempt to live the conflict away from the eyes of the children seems futile: the children witness everything and were present during the tragic event.

Scenes of awkward discussions even in front of other couples recruited ad hoc to humiliate the husband, to make him reflect, admit responsibility, acknowledge the runaway reaction.

Hours of stress and tension.

How can people react in extreme circumstances? What might be the consequences if unpredictable was the instinctive response?

Fear and the intense emotion that comes with it is primary and dominated by the impulse that has survival as its goal.

How might a man or woman react with respect to their children?

This is the question before which Ostlund's film seems to pose us: how such a situation can irreversibly undermine a couple's relationship; how a woman's expectations of her man can be disregarded especially where he does not hesitate to deny the evidence of his own reaction.

The result is a scabrous reflection on gender differences, on instincts, including that of protection as well as self-preservation. Sublime sequence plans depict the anguish through which family conflicts and contradictions take shape until they take on the appearance of a breathtaking psychological thriller.

There is no shortage of irony laced with sarcasm and elegant sense of the absurd, with a subtle twist at the end.

An unpredictable but controlled and rigorous film in the style of Haneke.

A unique operation, the cinema here touches the sublime and leaves one mesmerized.

27-Jun-2023 by Beatrice