Tuning

Peter and Katarina's marriage has reached a mid-life crisis where respect has worn thin, love come unstuck and commitment dried on the vine. Their teenage daughter is already answering back and snogging the wrong type of boy. Their younger daughter is feeling the effects of in-house tension.

They live in Ljubljana and Peter goes to Brussels on EU business every once in a while, where he feels ineffectual and enjoys (relatively speaking) the company of prostitutes. He also lusts after an old classmate. Bedtime with Katarina is practically fully clothed, with reading material at the ready.

What makes this situation more poignant is that Peter is not a bad man. He has lost his way and knows it, but can't find the route back. Katarina, on the other hand, is desperate. She hates the phoniness of their marriage, is sexually frustrated, aware of time's guillotine and feels so angry she could scream.

This is a dead end street. The only way out is divorce. But what about the children? Nothing terrible has happened. Not irreversibly terrible. Peter pays for sex (occasionally); Katarina sleeps with a writer (once). They are trapped, trapped, trapped.

The film is shot in sections, moments, isolated incidents, signifying despair. Peter is a nice man. Katarina is a neurotic woman. The family is a unit (just). Questions are posed.

Why? Why marriage? Why children? Why go on?

The performances of Peter Musevski and Natasa Burger are terrific.

The film hurts. Truth hurts.

If you want to die living, watch Tuning. It will make you cry.