Housekeeping for Beginners

Who says cinema never teachers you anything? Well, probably no one. I think I just made up an opinion to get mad at. Either way, I learned a lot about the country of North Macedonia from the film, Housekeeping for Beginners. Such as the fact that the country is now called North Macedonia. I love learning! There’s also quite a lot of focus on the plight of Roma people and queer people in the country. What this movie did not teach me was any sort of housekeeping. Both literally and metaphorically, that house was a mess.

Dita lives with her girlfriend, Suada. Suada has a habit of picking up strays. As such, their household consists of Dita and Suada, Suada’s two daughters, three young lesbian punks, a gay man named Toni and Toni’s 19 year old Grindr hookup, Ali. Dita loves Suada, but she’s not really about the found family situation. Unfortunately, Suada is sick. So this means Dita is forced to become head of this very non-traditional household.

Housekeeping for Beginners uses this very unusual family as a way to depict and make commentary on culture in North Macedonia. A main factor in the film is the discrimination Suada and her daughters face as Romani people. As only the second North Macedonian film I’ve seen, it seems likely this was a film made for an audience outside of North Macedonia. Director Goran Stolevski does a good job of clearly introducing various issues that he sees within his country to an audience likely ignorant to them. I do wish he’d also done as good of a job clearly introducing his characters. I genuinely do not know what Toni’s deal is or how he met this lesbian couple that he lives with despite not liking them and not paying rent.

What really struck me about Housekeeping for Beginners was that there isn’t ever a strong sense of community within this household. Or, maybe there is but it’s just that everyone sucks. This can be frustrating to watch. Toni apparently doesn’t pay rent and is sort of just an asshole for most of the movie. And the three lesbian punks don’t seem to contribute much of anything to the household. Thank god for Ali, the 19 year-old twink and newest household addition who ends up doing most of the childcare in the film. While this may not satisfy the itch to see a strong and supportive queer family, it is a shade more realistic. It’s fun to dream about the queer, leftist intentional community. But the reality is, there’d still be a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and everyone would claim it wasn’t their problem.

There is a constant state of chaos in Housekeeping for Beginners. Which is fitting given the narrative. The camera is often very close or at an odd angle. It’s almost always shaky and handheld. While this fits with the film’s themes, it does make things hard to follow. The editing in the film is jumpy to say the least. Likewise, the film’s timeline was a bit difficult to decipher. The frenetic energy works very well for the duration of individual scenes. But it’s also present in the film’s overall presentation which leads to a lack of clarity on my end.

Housekeeping for Beginners wasn’t quite the film I was expecting. And on the most part, that’s good. I’m glad it wasn’t a saccarine family drama where everyone wrapped up their conflicts in three acts. And I’m very glad there was so much focus on daily life in Macedonia, especially as an oppressed minority. That’s a new and informative topic for me. However, I was missing a touch of emotional connection to the piece. I spent much of the movie simply frustrated with the characters or confused about a jump cut that might signify 30 seconds have passed or maybe, several weeks. As a film about a queer family of choice, it’s more complex than many of the ones I watch. But I supposed I just wished all these queer misfits liked each other a little more.

Overall rating: 6.1/10

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