Mens vi lever

A young man, Kristian, is working hard to get on his feet as he tries out for a job on a fishing boat and at home, tends to a new relationship. A visitor from his past appears at the door though, and the information that someone called Peter is dying, sends him into an anxious rage. Kristian travels to be by his side. There he learns that everyone still blames him for a devastating accident that tore his family apart, five years earlier.

There are several younger characters and different locations that we soon start to piece together as a story from the past, of intertwined family relationships after a tragic phone-driving accident.

This is a slow-burning, psychological drama of family relations as intense emotions of painful loss, love and hurtful conflict resurface.

Iranian-born Danish filmmaker Mehdi Avaz has intricately structured a narrative that interweaves past and present to peel back layers of buried resentment and guilt.

While We Live is a sad, complex, challenging and ultimately rewarding story based on real life events. It seems to occupy similar territory to last year's excellent 'Manchester By the Sea', if that helps.