Joachim Trier probe the cracks of a family marked by a heavy figure figure

Four years later Julie (in 12 chapters)which had earned Renate Reinsve, the female interpretation prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, Joachim Trier signs a new sensitive feature film on the complex cogs of family relationships. Sentimental value sort In theaters Wednesday August 20.

The film opens with the presentation, like a living being, of a beautiful typically Norwegian house, in red wood, marked by time. It observes its inhabitants. Nora and Agnès, two joyful little girls, try to resist the heavy atmosphere caused by parents’ disputes. When the father leaves the home, the atmosphere lighters, but his departure leaves a huge void for the two sisters.

Twenty years later, Nora (Renate Reinsve) still single, became theater actress. Agnès (Inga Josefine Ibsdotter Lilleaas) is a historian, married, with a child. While their mother has just died, their father, a great film director, makes a comeback at home after many years of absence. He asks Nora to play the first role in her next film. After his refusal, he offered the role to a young Hollywood starlet.

In Julie (in twelve chapters)the Norwegian director told the loves of an 30 -year -old. This time he bins his camera on the family, and more particularly on the relations between a father and his daughters. The figure of the failing father, already sketched in his previous film, is central here.

The director paints the portrait of a man centered on himself, obsessed with his art, contemptuous, misogynist, who reveals over the story his cracks, as deep as those that have weakened the old family building since its construction.

Mental illness, depression, suicide haunt the house, and weigh on its inhabitants for three generations. It will take time for Nora, the one who carries the tragic inheritances of the family, can take a step towards her father, thanks to the mediation of her little sister.

As Sound of Falling, Another film in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival, the house here is the eye that observes tragedies at work for the beings who follow one another. Allegory of the unconscious, the guard house locked in its walls the secrets and the dramas which are transmitted from generation to generation.

In addition to this exploration of family relationships, the director also offers us with this new feature film a reflection on art, on cinema and his dramaturgy, in an abyss of the scene. The film is once again carried by the magnetic presence of Renate Reinsve, but also by the masterful interpretation of Stellan Skarsgard in the role of the character of the father as a tutelary, invasive figure, which hides a being broken by the weight of the past.

Less rhythmic, less light than Julie (in 12 chapters), Sentimental value Once again demonstrates the virtuosity of the Norwegian director to translate on the screen, in a clear staging, the complexity of human relationships.

Genre : Comedy, dramatic comedy, drama
Realization : Joachim Trier
With : Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Stellan Skarsgard
Pays : Memento
Duration : 2h12
Sortie : August 20, 2025
Distributer : France, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Denmark
Synopsis : Agnès and Nora see their father land after many years of absence. Renowned director, he offers Nora, theater actress, to play in her next film, but she refuses with distrust. He then proposed the role to a young Hollywood star, reviving memories of painful family.