Architecting the year's best family drama

"Trier's newest film is tied up in the mess of parental issues. Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) plays a negligent father and a filmmaker himself who has returned with his magnum opus: a script written about his own mother who died by suicide. He's written the lead role for his daughter, Nora (Renate Reinsve, a frequent Trier collaborator). But she's less than forgiving of her father's absence and ultimately passes on the part."

"As much as Trier's film operates as a pair of moving character portraits, he believes his use of space and location are just as important. The house where much of the movie takes place is treated as much as a character itself. "It's like you can smell it, you feel it. And that is cinema to me," he tells me. (Longtime Trier fans might even recognize the house from a critical scene in Oslo, August 31st, the second of three films in his Oslo trilogy.)"

Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value follows a filmmaker father, Gustav Borg, who returns with a script about his own mother who died by suicide. He casts the lead for his daughter Nora, who rejects the role due to resentment over his negligence. The film pairs intimate character portraits with formal attention to space and location, treating the family house as a living presence. The production earned the Grand Prix at Cannes and entered awards season contention. Trier employs a "polyphonic structure" to navigate the protagonist's pain, prioritizes casting instincts, and emphasizes process in assembling performance and narrative.

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