FAMILY HOME | Omeleto

A woman takes photos. Emily is a real estate assistant dispatched to take photos of a new home that's just come up for sale with her realty. The usual photographer can't make it, so Emily has to go to the location, clean it and stage it for the listing. As she works, she talks to her irreverent brother Lou on speaker. When she arrives at the sleek, modern home, the alarm has already been turned off, and the home is still full of clothes and dishes from a recently eaten meal. But as Emily discovers, these are not the only things off about this family home. Directed and written by Hugo Keijzer, this short drama is both a mystery about a seemingly normal family and a deconstruction of the very idea of a picture-perfect family as it is created through perception and images. The plot itself is pared down in its simplicity: a realtor's assistant comes in to clean and photograph a home for a listing. But this menial task becomes an investigation as she stumbles onto a family's secrets and mysteries -- and finds herself pulled into their dark orbit just from being inside this mysterious home. True to a story about poking under the pristine surfaces of perfection, the film is notable for its visual acuity, shot with a fashionably tasteful, muted gleam of aspiration in the lighting and cinematography. It's a perfect visual showcase for the home at the heart of the narrative: sleekly modern, well-to-do, tasteful, spacious. It looks like the home of a "nice family," as Emily remarks. But some of the shots -- taken through the bushes, or around the corner from behind -- have an uneasy, almost voyeuristic feel in their watchfulness, making such a prosperous environment into something uncomfortable at times. This mirrors the development of the storytelling, as Emily chats with Lou on the phone as she works, cleaning, tidying and observing. Certain things are off: there's still a half-eaten meal out, and there are clothes everywhere. On the phone, Lou offers commentary and information in an often arch, facetiously teasing tone. But when he discovers a surprising event in the family's history, the offbeat details that Emily discovered take on a darker portent. Actor Jadina Li, as our proxy into this strange conundrum, arcs from skeptical to curious to alarmed as certain pieces fall into place. Other pieces, however, become ominous loose ends -- until she realizes that she may be one of them. Immaculately crafted, controlled and precise, FAMILY HOME ends on something of a cliffhanger. The discovered details of its central mystery give us just enough to surmise what happened, though we can't be truly sure. That gap is intentional, reflective of its themes and teasing us to think about what we can ever really know of others. The mythos of a perfect family is just that: an ideal and an image. It can hide a myriad of problems and secrets; it can be a cloak of respectability for the sociopathic to lurk behind; it can often be more fragile than you would think. We take it for granted until one day it is gone, and we wonder what was really there in the first place. FAMILY HOME. Courtesy of Hugo Keijzer at https://hugokeijzer.com.