Fucking Bornholm

There’s nothing like a family camping and caravanning holiday with children in tow in a remote yet idyllic setting to kindle domestic strife and undercurrents.

Director Anna Kazejak uses such a mundane starting point to explore relationships in two sets of couples, both with energetic and demanding children who have their own particular problems.

The island is Bornholm, reached by ferry from the Danish mainland which lends itself to stunning seascapes and a sense of isolation in which lurking issues away from hearth and home can become heightened.

The two sets of couples are in their forties, wrestling with the trials and tribulations of parenting while trying to keep their own relationships alive and loving.

One of the women (played by Agnieszka Grochowska) seems constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, ground down by the demands of family and the daily grind. She manages to seek solace and intimacy elsewhere as a way of rediscovering herself.

The children and their fumbling awareness of sexuality bring a new dimension of issues to the table, despite the apparent open-ness of their parents in dealing with them.

The screenplay by Kazejak and Filip Kasperaszek produces believable and well rounded characters, with plenty of humour to leaven the psychological torments on view. They are also instantly recognisable human beings rather than figments of imagination and artifice.