A big part of what moved me so much while watching Housekeeping for Beginners the first time is what an excellent encapsulation of the magic and importance of chosen family, especially for marginalized people. So much of our culture is built around reinforcing biological connection as is much of our legal system. But for so many, especially those most vulnerable, biofamilies can be sources of abuse and even danger. Housekeeping for Beginners celebrates and spotlights all the mess, the drama, and the love that this kind of family can offer.
Stolevski has quickly become one of my favourite directors with his verite style and way of bringing us intimately into the lives of his characters. Here we have a group of people thrown at us and are drawn into their beautiful and challenging mess so effectively, so rawly. By setting his story in his homeland of Macedonia, at a time when queer people and Romani people face real persecution, he shows us humanity and its vulnerabilities and connects us to that.
That connection comes in the form of their relationships, some formed over time, some more recent, but all true and strong. There is a pureness to the way he tells stories and build characters that hits right for me. So much of what I watch in his films just feels so truthful.
Housekeeping for Beginners is just a lovely movie filled with loss and pain and hope and is told in such a way that one just gets pulled in so completely.
Housekeeping for Beginners
Starring: Anamaria Marinca, Alina Serban, Samson Selim, Vladimir Tintor
Writer/Director: Goran Stolevski
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