How did the family’s web of relationships come together and how much was inspired by real life? What was the key to balancing the collective family dynamic with all the individual characters and performances?
They are a mix of people I’ve known and seen, and myself, too. I already made two short films before with the same characters; one of them in film school in 2016 and the second one, also called Family Time, in 2018. The first one never got released because I knew I wanted to keep developing this idea and remake it. But the characters were already very established and real to me because I have been living with them in my head for a long time. It was very funny when we went location scouting for the house of the middle-aged couple Risto and Susanna, and we went to three houses. In two of them, the couples who lived there looked just like Risto and Susanna, and the men were engineers, too, like Risto. That was hilarious, it felt like we had really pinpointed something not only authentic but very common.
As I wrote the script, it was clear to me that the first part of the film will be focused on the group; I really wanted to show what it looks like when this family gathers and the problems that ensue. In the second part of the film, I’m trying to reflect on why things are the way they are. And I’m also looking for some kind of solution. I focused in more on the grandfather Lasse, his daughter Susanna and also the granddaughter Hilla. I wanted to look more closely at Susanna and Lasse, because they seem to have heavier or more urgent issues than others. By that I mean the issue of finding a connection to other people, but also to themselves. Hilla, the grandchild, doesn’t seem to have the same problems as the adults, and that’s why it was important to have her in the story. To remind us that something can be done, and that even if change is not easy to achieve - eventually, the time will come for the new generation, and they will make new choices. It was also important to make this intergenerational connection present in the film; to look at how patterns move from one generation to the next, but also how things change from one generation to the next.
Family gatherings, Christmas, holiday arguments – all come with their share of stereotypes in film and life. How did you hope to approach them differently?
I wanted to make a film about Christmas that isn’t a Christmas movie. I didn’t feel any pressure maneuvering that territory, because I felt that Christmas is, in most of the films that I’ve seen, depicted in a way that I don’t recognize from my own Christmases. It’s funny actually, the very first small seed for Family Time was planted about ten years ago now, when I was at my grandparents’ place. It was a couple days after Christmas Eve, I was watching TV, and there was this American Christmas movie on. In that exact moment, I felt like what I was seeing was so fake. Maybe I was just jealous of this happy American family. But anyway I got a paper and pen and wrote down a question: what if I made a film that shows our Christmas? It felt very tickling, the thought of it. Could a film like that even be possible? Many stones have been turned since that moment but it’s fun to think that something of the initial small, scary-just-to-think idea is still there. And we actually shot the film at my own grandparents’ place, so the circle has now been closed.
I really didn’t have any straightforward references on the subject of Christmas holidays, but for the family setting and following multiple characters over a certain unified theme, I looked more to inspirations like Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story and Todd Solondz’ Happiness.
What about the humor in the film? What were you looking for and how did you find its specific bittersweet tone?
I love humor that just happens in everyday situations, when people just happen to say or do something funny without realizing it themselves. Often it is based on the situation itself; a person not understanding how they are perceived by others. Or just looking at a person doing something mundane can be funny! When we laugh at those qualities, it’s because we understand the absurdity of it. It also has to do with the point of view I think I have towards us as humans. In a way, I see us as very small and petty. On the other hand, I take people’s lives with the utmost seriousness. Maybe there’s something Nordic about it, I’m not sure. I would say people like Roy Andersson and Aki Kaurismäki have a similar kind of humor; on one hand taking ordinary life very seriously, but at the same time, it generates laughter.
Most of the movie is set indoors, but visually the film also feels dynamic. What was your concept in terms of the visual approach to the scenes?
Me and the cinematographer Jesse Jalonen have been having a dialogue about the visual style since we made the short version of Family Time (2018) together. We talk and plan intensively, we create a meticulous storyboard, we experiment with different angles in the real locations. Then we’re evolving and adapting that with the actors, tweaking all the way through the shoot.
When it comes to the grandparents’ house in the film, it is my (late) grandparents’ real home, and I wrote the script for this place. For me this was a fantastic thing both artistically and practically, because we could go there many times over several years to plan exactly how the film would look. I hope that this contributes to a natural feeling in the film, and that things feel connected and organic.
What I also knew from having made the short film in a similar style was that if I’m going to keep the viewers’ attention for two hours with scenes like this, there has to be more of a dynamic. I don’t want to bore the viewer, I want them to enjoy. So I knew I wanted to go close and far; to go outside the house sometimes to get a bit of a break. For me, the story is the images. The images are intertwined but they are also there for themselves. In this way, it was important for me to create a sense of movement just with the images. They move us forward as much as the plot, and it was important to me that they vary in rhythm, length and perspective.
The youngest family members, the kids, bring confrontation but also wisdom and hope to the film. How do we learn from older generations, or not? Can we have any hope for the future of our own families?
I think the learning happens both ways. In Family Time, I am looking at the older generation critically, but also with warmth. I try to find an understanding as to why things are as they are. The multigenerational perspective is important because we are still very much shaped to be the people we are in our families. And in Family Time, I’m looking at the difficulty of being together, how hard it is to feel good in your own skin, and this is usually very connected to what kind of family we are brought up in.
And there is hope, absolutely! I hope the film leaves the viewer with a positive feeling, after everything. Although change is slow and sometimes difficult, people are still worth the fight, and time will inevitably change things, eventually.
