Andulis is so shy he can barely speak, Dzon stabs himself with a corkscrew, Oskars steals a chicken from his grandmother. All of them are trying to woo Zanda, a young woman with two children, both of whom were fathered by her brother. Welcome to the world of Family Instinct, a portrait of one of the most dysfunctional communities you are ever likely to come across, where the men are always drunk, the women try to pick up the pieces and the children look on, taking everything in.
This extraordinary documentary follows Zanda over the course of a long, harsh, Latvian winter. Valdis, her brother and the father of her children, has been imprisoned for “old sins” and as Zanda struggles to make ends meet, her younger brother Maris turns up to sponge off her while the local men declare undying love. It seems that everyone wants something from Zanda, but with the violent Valdis due for release, and social services threatening to take her children away, she becomes increasingly desperate.
What in other hands might make for unbearable viewing becomes, under Andris Gauja’s direction, a gripping drama beautifully composed and shot through with a rich vein of the blackest Baltic humour. - Alistair Daniel, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival