Some Secrets

Picking up where her debut Eeny Meeny left off, Nellis' engaging comedy sticks with a fractious extended family travelling cross country to bury their late paterfamilias. Odds on quarrelling are high: grieving mother Milada is a highly strung neurotic; her elder daughter Ilona is pregnant and lonely, having left behind her unkind spouse; the younger, Zuzanna, has her warm-hearted partner in tow, yet takes every opportunity to call up her other lover. It's a good thing Granny and Ilona's young son Leon both seem to be in their own worlds. Structured as a series of conversations, arguments, chance confessions and car-seating rearrangements, the film finds bitter-sweet humour in the fragility of family ties. If it's not exactly adventurous cinema, the script and performances are Nellis' main concern, and they come together admirably.