Swiss director Jan-Eric Mack's Karlovy Vary competition entry follows a working single mother at odds with child protection services.
By Elena Lazic
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Courtesy of Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival There is a more interesting story lurking within Jan-Eric Mack’s “A Happy Family” than the one actually being told. At times, the Swiss filmmaker teases the possibility that the conventional narrative shown thus far might break into a bold, daring twist. It’s a promise unfulfilled, however, and those glimpses of something thornier and more daring ultimately come to seem like signs of a filmmaker not in total control of his argument. The first Swiss film to ever play in the Crystal Globe competition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, “A Happy Family” is a custody drama that turns out to be more interested in the “drama” part of the phrase, at the expense of plausibility.
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