Together For Ever

An apparently contented three-member family is on its way to a gala concert. The mother is excited, the daughter is bored, and the only thing that keeps the father from falling asleep is an urgent phone call. Their differing interests, however, run deeper. Soon enough it becomes clear that their life together, in fact, represents three separate parallel existences devoid of any visible effort to achieve mutual understanding. White lies grow into deep wounds that intensify unawares during a minor home emergency. In her debut feature, Lithuanian director Lina Lužytė posits the family as the primary social unit to thematize communication gridlock as a diagnosis of today's society. Each of the characters longs to be loved and understood but manages to express this only through cheap emotional traps that brutalize the feelings of others. In her understated grasp of the family drama one can clearly feel the director's documentary work, as well as her interest in deep-seated traumas of social consciousness as she demonstrated in her prior short films. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)