My Happy Family

An honest, moving movie, with some of the loveliest music and singing.

This movie shows a fairly typical squabbling family living in close quarters in the struggling post-Soviet republic of Georgia. The main character, a 52 year old wife and mother feels unappreciated/unloved, gets fed up and decides to leave the chaos. It's kind of a middle-aged chick flick but the characters, setting and situation are interesting. The story unfolds organically and kept my attention throughout. There are some light moments in the film which contrasted with the melancholy. IMDB summary refers to a 'patriarchal society' but it seems the old lady of the house ran the family. As a North American who has visited Georgia, the film showed the country accurately, kind of scruffy and run down, but full of life. I recognized the Tbilisi flea market in one scene. BTW I actually might have preferred them speaking Georgian with subtitles instead of having English with American accents dubbed in, but that's a minor gripe. Great to see a slice of life from a little known but fascinating country.

A beautifully observed, character driven film. A delicate and subtle film that's strength lies in its simplicity. Long takes give great freedom to the actors who embody their roles with a raw honesty. The script is lean but carries an deep emotional undercurrent. Can not recommend enough.

Mark Twain had said "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness". Movies like this one helps to learn about different cultures and that in turn helps to understand that there is not much difference in how people live around the world. If you have prejudices to any country, its people, watch movie like this one.

A very simple story: a woman in her fifties decides to leave her family for no other reason than wanting to be alone.Her children being grown-ups she decides to stop playing the various roles society (through her family) imposes on her: mother, daughter, wife, sister... Besides its Intelligent script and direction, top use of (Georgian) music