It’s That Time of Year for Paprika Steen
A Dramatic Family Comedy


by Jorn Rossing Jensen, Cineuropa
09/2018

From Danish director and actor Paprika Steen comes a caustic comedy about the deep-rooted grievances that can rip families apart -- and the ties that bind them together.

The Danish actress returns to the director’s chair after ten years away to stage “a dramatic family comedy” penned by playwright Jakob Weis.

Danish actress Paprika Steen, who received the Danish Film Critics’ Bodil Award for her performance in Ole Christian Madsen’s Superclásico (2012), returns to the director’s chair after ten years away and stages That Time of Year, “a dramatic family comedy” by Danish author-playwright Jakob Weis.



Steen, who has 63 films to her credit, most recently helmed the romantic comedy With Your Permission in 2007, which toured 16 festivals; she had previously starred in Weis’ stage play Tove’s Room, in which she played Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen.

“Next Christmas, we’re going to Thailand! I think this is what many of us feel after yet another Christmas Eve with children, parents, grandparents, bonus children and various in-laws – at least until next year,” said Danish producer Mikael Rieks, who produced the movie for Nordisk Film Production, with support from Danish regional film centre FilmFyn and the Danish Film Institute.




“When you talk about Christmas and this film project, it does not take long for people to begin sharing their own absurd Christmas Eve stories,” added Rieks, who also produced Danish director Martin Zandvliet’s Oscar-nominated Land of Mine, among others. That Time of Year follows the festive celebration in a close-knit family of three siblings, and their spouses, children, grandmothers and dogs.



“I suppose the best description of it would be a ‘dramatic family comedy’,” explained Steen, who most recently played in SBS Discovery’s thriller series Below the Surface (2017). “It is the story of the big failure of the small failure – a portrayal of the double moral standard in Christmas. Everything has to look like something from the good old days and be so eco-friendly, but today’s Christmas gift is an iPhone.”

***

A perfect accounting of people’s inexplicable need to refight old battles in the worst possible forum, That Time of Year is a caustic comedy about bad behaviour. The film is filled with hilarious set pieces where boundaries are trampled on wildly (Gunna’s antics and Barbara’s first Christmas sermon especially stand out). At the same time, the film acknowledges that the only things stronger than relation-inspired neuroses are the bonds that keep families together.


Actress-director Paprika Steen (© Egmont)

Paprika Steen was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark. She has acted in numerous films including The Celebration (98) and Applesauce (09), earning multiple awards. She has directed the feature films Aftermath (04), With Your Permission (07), and That Time of Year (18). (TIFF)