I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival 2014 (IFFR), where it was programmed as part of the official Tiger Award competition. I neglected my earlier resolutions to not see any coming-of-age story again, as this one seemed different and I booked tickets nevertheless. And it indeed turned out different in the positive sense. A well-to-do family with ample staff gradually falls apart due to financial problems, and (of course) the father tells his family too late what is going on. Staff is dismissed one-by-one, accompanied by many lies to uphold appearances. The coming-of-age as a topic is important only in the first half, and it includes the usual problems with school, looks and girls. Luckily, the story line moves on to something completely different.
During the final Q&A with the director I learned that the film title comes from a classic book (in English translation known as "Masters and Slaves"). The director took advantage of its basic idea, but made a translation to a contemporary situation. Many things have changed in comparison with the book: middle class is growing, being poor is not that poor anymore as it was, and servants need not to be servants as desperately as before. The opening scene with the big house is on purpose, where we see the father turn out all the lights one by one, apparently to save on costs. Immediately after that, the attention moves on to the son, who stays the focus for the rest of the running time.
A special hefty scene with father and son is amplified from the director's own youth, including all the bad words that are uttered, though the director admits to a bit of exaggeration and having made it into a caricature. Another recurring topic is an affirmative action law (quotas for minorities) that was passed just before he shot the movie, and we see several hot discussions pro and con. A final remark from the director was about soap opera's that usually play in similar well-to-do houses, but it seems that the décor is always taken for granted and never discussed. Here the role of the "décor" is very different, and indeed important for the story. There is a second link with soap opera's: the actor playing the son had roles in soap opera's before, and never got a chance for a serious role.
All in all, I was happy having set aside my prejudice against coming-of-age stories. The stories of the different main characters keep our attention throughout the running time, probably due to the fact that there is more than a single main character to follow. Yet, the son gets the most attention, due to his open mind and thus interacting with everyone in spite of them being a "master" or a "servant". This film ranked a 42nd place (out of 200) for the audience award in Rotterdam, average score 4.15 (out of 5).
