My Best Dox

‘I believe this will be a film about me, about Valdis and our children. Because I live with my brother and we have children.’ With this statement made by 28-year-old Zanda, the film Family Instinct begins, probably one of the most bizarre films ever shown at ZagrebDox. Zanda is waiting for her brother Valdis, also the father of their children, to come back from prison. Zanda’s potential lovers, relatives and neighbours spend their daily lives drinking beer (out of inevitable plastic bottles), with weird bursts of uncontrolled emotions, in a village of utterly unusual standards. Even though the film begins with a classic documentary statement, its form is all but classic. The extremely good balance between documentary and fiction draws the viewer in the atmosphere and the carefully planned plot, told through apparently acted and re-enacted scenes, engulfing him in a series of dilemmas related to the ethics of even making such a film. Let’s see Family Instinct in the name of all families.

Igor Bezinović