Three generations squeezed into one flat in Tbilisi. Manana, who teaches literature, celebrates her 52nd birthday by announcing to her family that she’s decided to up sticks and move out; she wants to live on her own somewhere quiet. Perhaps a tad hasty even for a modern Western family, her decision sparks a series of emotionally taut situations in the more conservative Georgian environment, although these are often tempered with an acerbically comedic tone. The heroine becomes an anomaly for family and friends, because her husband “doesn’t even drink or beat her,” so why would she want to swan off in search of her own life when she could be preparing for her role as grandma? Manana is, in fact, trying to instil in her daughter something she herself never had from her own mother. Manana’s mum represents traditional patriarchal society, where the woman is responsible for the family’s happiness and is supposed to sacrifice everything in order to achieve it. The framing of the scenes, along with the sound composition, draws the viewer right up close to the film’s realistically rendered characters. My Happy Family began its festival circuit competing at Sundance.