Bad Family is a 2010 Finnish drama/black comedy

Black comedy

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 film written and directed by Aleksi Salmenperä

Aleksi Salmenperä

Aleksi Salmenperä is a Finnish film director. He is a graduate of the University of Art and Design Helsinki; among his films are 2004's Producing Adults, 2007's A Man's Work and 2010 Bad Family.-References:...

 and produced by Aki Kaurismäki

Aki Kaurismäki

-Career:After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment , Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki...

. The film tells the story of an overly protective and controlling father who suspects incest is taking place between his own son and daughter. These growing suspicions and concerns cause the father to become delusional and unrelenting in his quest to end the love affair between his children.

Distributed domestically by Sandrew Metronome

Sandrew Metronome

Sandrew Metronome is a Scandinavian film distributor. It is one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries. It is owned by the Anders Sandrew Foundation and the Norwegian Schibsted group....

, Bad Family was theatrically released in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 on January 29, 2010. From February 14 to February 21, 2010, it was screened at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival

60th Berlin International Film Festival

The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 11 to February 21, 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama Apart Together, in competition, while the closing film is Japanese...

.

Cast

• Ville Virtanen
  Ville Virtanen (actor)
  - Filmography :* Ursula * Fakta homma * The Winter War * Sergeant Körmy and the Marshall's Stick...
  
   — Mikael Lindberg
• Lauri Tilkanen — Daniel
• Pihla Viitala — Tilda
• Vera Kiiskinen — Laura
• Niki Seppälä — Milo
• Ismo Kallio — Jaan

Critical response

In a review of the film, Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily called Salmenperä's storyline a "confident study of family trauma" and proclaimed the film "a compelling, sometimes darkly witty drama." Alissa Simon of Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

magazine stated that Bad Family has a "perversely fascinating start" after which the "darkly comic psychodrama goes plain psycho". She commended the "serious thesping by the three principals" for suggesting "psychological depth" but concluded that "the script eventually leaves them high and dry" and that "[Bad Family] loses its way at the midpoint, becoming a tonal roller-coaster that skitters to a stop."

External links

• Bad Family at Box Office Mojo
  Box Office Mojo
  Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...