You will no doubt have noticed, but in recent years, the line between cinema and series has become increasingly thin. And it is not uncommon to see big names in the seventh art making a foray onto the small screen: in full length, like Martin Scorsese and his Irishmanwhich marked the reunion between Al Pacino and Robert de Niro on Netflix, or Thieves Mélanie Laurent and Adèle Exarchopoulos. Also in series. This was the case of Vincent Lindon in 2023, headliner of the thriller in twelve episodes Money and blood (Canal+)about the carbon tax scam, the very first series from the 65-year-old actor. The same goes today for the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, at the helm of Families like ours, new original creation of the encrypted channel.
Families like ours : what is the series directed by Thomas Vinterberg, broadcast on Canal+ from Monday January 6, 2025, about?
This seven-episode drama sets its plot in Denmark. To avoid an irreversible natural disaster linked to rising waters, the country's government decides to completely evacuate the territory, before it is completely flooded. The population must then disperse, sometimes even within the same family, leaving behind homes, school, work, and an entire life. Among them, there is Laura (actress Amaryllis April August), a high school student, soon to graduate. As she falls in love for the first time, the reality of the evacuation will change her life forever, forcing her to choose between her divorced parents (including Nikolaj Lie Kaas, seen in the Danish series The killing or the film adaptations of the literary saga Department V investigations de Jussi Alder-Olsen).
Families like ours : Should you watch the series directed by Thomas Vinterberg broadcast on Canal+ from Monday January 6, 2025? Our opinion
With Families like ours (translate “Families like ours”), the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, to whom we owe in particular the excellent The partyJury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, or even Drunk, Oscar 2021 for best international film, therefore trying for the first time in the serial format. With brilliance, strength and tenderness at the same time. Worrying portrait of the near future linked to climate change, love letter to Denmark, Families like ours challenges us in many ways: due to the disaster scenario that is unfolding before our eyes, and inevitably questions us as much as it revolts us – how would we react if we too had to leave everything overnight, be separated from our loved ones and reluctantly embrace refugee status? -, but also thanks to its perfectly drawn characters, in their psychology, in their actions, in the emotions that pass through them. With Families like oursThomas Vinterberg creates a powerful human drama, coupled with a touching ode to love and resilience. The strength of the 55-year-old director in all this? Manage, even in darkness, to bring out light.
