Olivia

Long night’s journey into day. Olivia lives with her father, who works in a slaughterhouse. And since Olivia is awake mainly at night, their paths don’t cross. Then, one day, her father doesn’t come home. This at first comforting herbarium of brief life moments gradually assumes more sinister contours; levity becomes apprehension, cosiness gives way to depression. Contemplating the asymmetry of the lives we share with our loved ones, the film nevertheless always maintains its ascetic, elusive and magical tone. Not much is spoken here, and if so, only in whispers; an overflowing pot will often say more than words. Not since Tarr’s The Turin Horse has there been such an evocative scene involving the consumption of boiled potatoes.