Family Instinct | Review

Family Instinct is not for the faint of heart. Director Andris Gauja’s third documentary lays bare the disturbing realities bestowed upon an inbred family living in the poverty stricken Latvian country side. Taboo or not, incest is the topic at hand. Like the neighboring locals, we are forced to accept the situation, and endure its consequences. Sometimes surprisingly funny, often claustrophobic, and almost always uncomfortable, Gauja’s one year documentation of a confused young mother’s life is as intimate and raw as they come.

Zanda, a 28 year-old mother of two, is living with her children under her mother’s roof along with several other close relatives. Her brother, and lover, Valdis, has been locked in prison until the end of the year for physically abusing her and her children. Like much of the world, Latvia’s current economy has left many of its citizens in dire straits, not excluding this one. Everyone is left with little to do, but get black-out drunk, and either fight each other, dance to American ballads, or hit on Zanda. Despite the fact that by civilized culture standards most would find Zanda absolutely repulsive, if not only for the lone fact that she gave birth to not one, but two of her brother’s children, her neanderthalic looks and ultra sheltered intellect would leave most men slowly backing away trying to avoid eye contact, somehow every single male she comes in contact with wants to immediately jump in bed with her. Though her less than ideal living situation, and bleak support system prevents her from becoming a good mother, she tries her best. Eventually community action is taken, and Zanda is forced to make the decision to either give up custody of her kids, or cut all ties with Valdis before he is released from prison.

Gauja is a brave soul. Spending two week periods over the course of a year with this group of hopeless people living in destitute must have been mentally taxing. His film objectively depicts a family left behind by a society that has obviously failed them. That same society has very little to support the arts either, so the film’s low budget shows its head in the form of low quality video. That said, the content is what’s most important here, and these people’s troubled lives are portrayed with unbiased empathy. Zanda’s situation is tragic, but with two kids involved, there is no need to exacerbate her mounting problems. The point of the film was not to embarrass her and her family, but to examine this bizarre situation and how it has come to take place. The colorful characters found on screen bare their haggard souls for the camera because they feel that they have nothing to hide, or more likely, nothing to lose.

Everyone complains about life’s little complications, but this is a family with truly vexing ground-level problems. Somehow granted access to intimately film this astounding situation, Gauja captures Latvian society at its lowest level with a keen eye and a quiet mouth. Disturbing and pensive, Family Instinct is unflinching in its depiction of a family on the farthest outskirts of modern day society.

Reviewed at the 2011 Hot Docs Film Festival

Rating 3 stars