The movie's Europeanism is so conspicuous right from the beginning until the very end. The overall surroundings and thematic undertones make room for no speculations and discussions. Such is the weight of a European movie, which, though decently acted and directed, lacks the technical and visual grandiosity which we are used to seeing in American projects. The movie is touching, with a storytelling confined within a very dull way of living. It focuses on the weary life of a Swiss family which struggles to get by in an unsettling environment of a low-key community. On the other hand, there is an Albanian family (brother & sister) which happens to be living in the same community after previously being evicted from their homeland, Kosovo.
Kosovo has suffered a bitter war with the ruling regime applying an ethnic cleansing and eventually taking reign of the province. The war is over now and the regime is out but its presence over the years has forced many ethnic Albanians to flee the ever threatening atmosphere and seek refuge wherever they encountered open doors. One of the open doors was Switzerland which boasts one of the biggest Albanian communities in Europe.
The family which the movie talks about has been warmly integrated in this community and now it's up to them to survive the demanding reality. Therefore, the Albanian man finds a job at a metal factory where he befriends the Swiss man who represents the native aspect of the story. So, the smart thing here is that the director has managed to find the commonness between the refugee and the native inhabitant whose weary lives have led them up to striving for the same thing: money for living! The native Swiss is a decent man, industrious by nature and characterized by a cold European-like reticence. Whereas, the Albanian is much of a lovely man, warm and friendly he is hard-working and intrinsically humane. The virtue that the director wants to give importance to from both characters is affection and dignity. He makes the characters to exhale their inner emotions whatever their visible traits seem to be. The men become good friends, they spend time together and they develop a sense of mutual belonging. During the film there are a couple of scenes which splendidly depict the way Albanians spend time together in mass gatherings celebrating and native-dancing. That's beautiful, for sure! These scenes also depict the nostalgia that they feel for their fatherland which they have been forcefully estranged from.
To mess the things up, the director plays with the pride of the Albanian man. He creates a secret relationship between two characters which will ultimately make things take an unintended direction, which in fact will happen to be very distracting.
As I said, this is a mild movie with a self-narrative storytelling. It is more about Albanians in Switzerland than the Swiss family itself. If you are curious to know about this, then this movie is worth watching. 6/10
