{"id":97599,"date":"2026-07-05T09:19:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97599\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T09:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:19:40","slug":"jan-eric-mack-shows-switzerlands-dark-side-in-a-happy-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97599\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan-Eric Mack Shows Switzerland’s Dark Side in ‘A Happy Family’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSwitzerland is still one of the richest countries in the world. But there are cracks in its foundation, argues director Jan-Eric Mack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDuring the pandemic, we started seeing people lining up to get food. It was an unusual sight in Switzerland, where you don\u2019t see poverty on the streets that much. But these numbers are rising,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople don\u2019t talk about it, but so many of them are affected. Especially single mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cA Happy Family<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the first Swiss film to be screened in Karlovy Vary Film Festival<\/a>\u2019s Crystal Globe Competition \u2013 Niki (Anna Schinz) works all the time to provide for her two children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne day, when she\u2019s away again, they accidentally set the kitchen on fire and the authorities place them with a foster family in another city. Niki isn\u2019t allowed to contact or see her kids \u2013 but she can\u2019t stay away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Neuenschwander, Julia Jentsch, Alireza Bayram, Bettina Stucky and Martina Apostolova also star. Sold by Bendita Film Sales<\/a>, it\u2019s produced by C-Films AG.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWomen [like Niki] feel invisible in this society. There\u2019s a lot of injustice in the system, and that\u2019s what we wanted to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, \u201cA Happy Family\u201d is not your usual social realist drama, and Mack likes it this way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe decided to tell this story strictly from her perspective, and her desire to be close to her kids leads to some very unusual situations. There\u2019s a lot of grotesque humor here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMostly because Niki is ready to do whatever it takes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDuring our research, we learnt that parents will go to extreme places when their children are taken away. We understand this, but we also understand she puts them in a conflict of loyalty, which makes her a very ambivalent character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Niki\u2019s actions take an odd turn, so does the film, embracing thriller elements.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you pitch this topic, it feels like a normal social drama. I loved playing with these expectations. She has to put everything at risk, which immediately creates tension,\u201d notes Mack.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, he was still trying to understand \u201cboth sides\u201d of the conflict.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo me, this title is very dialectic. A \u2018happy family\u2019 doesn\u2019t really exist \u2013 it\u2019s a dream. Every family has its ups and downs. The authorities have to make difficult decisions in these cases. It\u2019s not about blaming anyone, because they\u2019re also trying to protect the children and they\u2019re doing their job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cIn my short \u2018Facing Mecca\u2019 [about a Syrian refugee trying to bury his wife according to Islamic traditions] I also talked about complex social issues. I\u2019m really interested in them as a political human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe still believes in people, he says, and in the good in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s all about doing the right thing, but I didn\u2019t want to pass moral judgements here. I like that you can\u2019t decide which side you\u2019re on [in \u2018A Happy Family\u2019]. You can just ask yourself: What would I do in this situation? Who\u2019s wrong and who\u2019s right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what would he do?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would take my car and go there. Just like she does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Switzerland is still one of the richest countries in the world. But there are cracks in its foundation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[48459,48460,48461,48462,17],"class_list":["post-97599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-a-happy-family","tag-bendita-film-sales","tag-jan-eric-mack","tag-karlovy-vary-film-festival","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116866630638961099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}