Saippuakauppiaan sunnuntai

A Sunday in the life of a Finnish family: the father works as a travelling salesman for vitamins and cleaning supplies, the wife is expecting her fourth child. The family spends the day at home, and it is defined by seemingly meaningless activities of everyday life: groceries are put away in the refrigerator, lunch is prepared, a computer game is played, crying children are comforted. In inserted shots, the father drones his sales phrases. A short film as a social-critical assessment (inserts showing turtles in an aquarium stylise the tower block as a prison), the true quality of which is its rhythm: the banal activities and minor occurrences seem to last forever, even if it is just closing an elevator door. (mp)