For the Living and the Dead

Running time: 99 mins

The thoughts and emotions that must be churning in Jaakko?s head as he must tell the police how he watched his youngest son die in a terrible domestic accident only a day ago. Are there truly any words that can heal a parent?s grief? How the surviving members of the family deal with this death is the subject of director Karl Paljakka?s powerful and heartbreaking story.

Hannu-Pekka Bjorkman is astounding as a father, who stoically keeps on keeping on, despite his overwhelming burden of guilt. As his wife sinks deeper into depression, Jaakko must mourn in silence, if only to be a pillar of strength for his other son, who feels he has not only lost a brother, but his whole family. And as friends offer condolences, their inability to comprehend the tragedy only heightens the alienation each family member experiences in his/her own way.

Based on a true event and written in close cooperation with the family who suffered the loss, the film observes the cycle of mourning. Father, mother and child all suffer, despair, recuperate and endure at their own pace, sometimes with dignity, and other times with anger and frustration. As their suppressed emotions surface and boil over, the family members confront not only one another, but also their own true feelings. Painfully realistic, but ultimately poignant and optimistic, For the Living and the Dead is a very well-observed, sympathetic and sometimes humorous family portrait that is very much about recuperation, the strength of the human spirit and, most importantly, life.

Sandy Wolf

MAVERICK COMPETITION