The Cinematheque

Slovenia

“A fantastic, hilarious play on the premise of Pasolini’s Teorema … The film features wonderful performances, especially from Marko Mandic as the patriarch and Aliocha Schneider as the young interloper.”

Jason Gutierrez, Tribeca Festival 2024

Family Therapy is a sharp, satirical, and trenchant examination of a complacent, rather crass Slovenian nouveau riche family from talented writer-director Sonja Presenc (The Tree, EUFF 2015). Happily ensconced in their luxurious glass home, the seemingly orderly and predictable lives of a family of three—father Aleksander, mother Olivia, and daughter Agata—are disrupted by the arrival of a young stranger. The stranger’s presence soon causes the family to splinter into dysfunction as Olivia’s overprotectiveness, Aleksander’s escapist tendencies, and Agata’s secrecy are unmasked. A sly, humorous reworking of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s classic Teorema, Prosenc combines dark comedy with plenty of cinematic style in this incisive critique of contemporary society.

In Slovene, French, and English with English subtitles

“Could be the lovechild of the production design and familial dynamics of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite and the dry, offbeat satirical tone of Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster.”

Olivia Popp, Cineuropa