Macdo

Telenovela meets claustrophobic chamber drama as the polished façade of Christmas slowly but surely cracks through the nostalgic shimmer of home video.

It is the late 1990s and Christmas is approaching. In a Mexican middle-class family, this night of anticipation is captured through the lens of a newly purchased camera, wandering between curious family members’ gazes and acts of filming. But the private sphere cannot be perfectly directed. The home video tapes ultimately reveal family dynamics shaped by control and guilt, where patriarchal and religious norms are reproduced within the safe confines of the home, in multifaceted artist Racornelia’s challenging and psychologically charged portrait of a family.

• Rasmus Kilander