Older brother Jeremy is acting up, parents are worried. Little sister Sasha is probably more focused on living her life, dad sees family as a distraction from his computer. They go see herons at a nature center and learn that after the birds raise their kids, the bond between parents dissolves, hmmm. Jeremy goes missing, is found by mom, shoplifts and is brought home by the cops, is sometimes sweet and mostly blank or hostile. Child psychologist is little help, the parents agree that he’s an asshole. Then a lady arrives holding a clipboard, that’s never good. “She suggested that she takes him away and I said yes.”

Sudden flash-forward and Sasha is a filmmaker presenting the case of the brother to a current-day group of social workers. What do we know now that we didn’t know then? Then Grown Sasha is the clipboard woman, stepping back into her house to visit Young Sasha and her parents.

Sophy for Sight & Sound:

I love when a film brings you into an experience rather than just telling you a story. It asks you to dissect the construction as you are participating in the watching of it.
…
It’s quite nihilistic in some ways. You want there to be an outcome that benefits the characters, but I’m a realist. I wanted to show the artistic exploration, but then cut short the emotional catharsis because it’s not a rescue mission that she goes on. If anything, it’s a research mission. Oftentimes when you do research, you don’t find what you’re looking for.