Family Stories Untold is an animated documentary, in which seven different women’s stories about family are woven into one life-long piece. It begins with Iida, 9, who after her parents’ nasty divorce helps Mummy find a new man on Tinder, and ends with Lisbeth, who has been forced into a retirement home by her children. It’s a story about a life in which we don’t have the courage to voice our opinions, desires and expectations.

Production notes

Through the different stories, the film guides us through life’s stages, crises, and relationships: with parents, with ourselves, love, having children, faithlessness, getting older. Each story offers us something relatable and recognisable. The actors and the skillful storytelling guide us through truly human challenges, and the settings created with animation take us deep into the world of the stories. 

The documentary questions many of our beliefs connected to a traditional value system. Each little story offers an unrelentingly powerful point of view to the key questions of humanity and that which we often leave unsaid. The film is harrowingly honest and beautifully freeing at the same time – it gives us a chance to see that there are different ways of living and experiencing life.

Elina Vitkala (translated by Inari Ylinen)

The director Catarina Diehl and producer Tommi Seitajoki are present in the screening on Thu, Feb 2.