The Gullspång Miracle

Maria Fredriksson's 2023 Swedish documentary begins with two Norwegian sisters buying an apartment in a small Swedish town. They read it as a sign from God, because the woman selling the flat looks startlingly like their older sister, who took her own life thirty years earlier. From there the documentary opens unexpectedly and becomes an investigation into family history, identity and the reliability of memory. Saying more would spoil it; the effect depends on the audience learning things at the same moment the sisters do. Fredriksson keeps the camera inside this family for a long time and does not withdraw as the tension rises. That is where the film's ethical boundary becomes debatable: some of the people in it end up in a position they may not be happy to be seen in. Who it's for: those who like documentaries built on family secrets and unexpected turns. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a documentary that protects its subjects; the camera does not stop rolling in the uncomfortable moments.