Paha perhe (2009)

Genres - Drama  |   Run Time - 95 min.  |   Countries - Finland  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

A father becomes unhinged as his son casually violates a widely held taboo in this darkly satiric comedy-drama from Icelandic filmmaker Aleksi Salmenpera. Mikael (Ville Virtanen) is a judge who has been raising his son Dani (Lauri Tilkanen) on his own since he split up with his wife. Mikael keeps a close watch over Dani, obsessively keeping track of every aspect of his life, and as the boy has grown into a good-looking teenager, he's begun to chafe under his father's obsessive attention. Mikael is particularly focused on his son's love life, and when his long-missing daughter Tilda (Pihla Viitala) returns to the household, he's horrified when Dani takes a decidedly non-familial interest in her. Mikael does everything in his power to dissuade Dani from pursuing Tilda, but when nothing reasonable seems to work, he embraces strange and desperate means, and Mikael's behavior begins to sink from fatherly concern into madness. Paha Perhe (aka Bad Family) was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.