Family Life

While housesitting for an estranged cousin who’s just left for Paris with his wife and young daughter, Martín takes the phrase “make yourself at home” to the extreme. He sleeps in their bed, wears their clothes, and rearranges the furniture. After the family cat, Mississippi, disappears, he sparks a fiery romance with Pachi, a single mother. He welcomes Pachi and her young son into the home as if it’s his own, crafting a deceitful narrative out of the space and of his life, turning domestic living into a foolhardy theatrical indulgence. Adapting a short story by Alejandro Zambra with the author, luminary Chilean filmmakers Alicia Scherson (Il futuro) and Cristián Jiménez (Bonsái) examine the slippery truth of identity with wry wit and freewheeling spontaneity, underlining the different roles we play not just in our relationships, but with ourselves when we’re alone. Family Life is a funhouse mirror of self-examination, one that turns intimate spaces inside out and reveals how even the most private corners of our lives—including something as innocent as a jar of Nutella—are not entirely safe from invasion.