Family Nest

Three generations share a small flat in Budapest. The young couple want a place of their own but the housing queue takes years. The father-in-law does not want his daughter-in-law there and tells her so every evening. The rooms are narrow, the walls carry sound and nobody has anywhere to go. The subject is not family but the absence of space turning people into enemies. The film draws no villain; everyone is tired, everyone is squeezed and everyone takes it out on somebody else. The cause of the fights is not the subject under discussion but the size of the room. The form is close to documentary. Handheld camera, close-ups stuck to faces, natural light and non-professional actors. The talk overlaps and scenes run long without cuts. It is Béla Tarr's first feature, made while he was still in his twenties. It is entirely unlike the slow, long-take manner of his later years; the approach here is direct social realism with a visible debt to Cassavetes. The film takes aim at the Hungarian housing shortage outright and was considered bold for its time. László Horváth and Gábor Kun are in the cast. Who it is for: viewers interested in social realism and Tarr's early work. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the formal calm of his later films; this one is loud, fast and full of shouting.