Ida (Sandra Guldberg Kampp) was amazing from the outset. We are seeing the story from her point of view as a withdrawn (understandably owing to the death of her mum and what we inferred about her mother's life - probably alcoholic, possibly prostitute) teenager thrown into a new life with relations she barely knows or has seen since childhood (again we infer no love lost between the mum and the aunt).
The moral compass for the film is set by the family who clearly care for each other even as their relations with the outside world are pretty toxic. No moral judgement is made by the film about the business of the family - it just is.
The centre of the film is the gradual mutual acceptance of Ida and the family, a story about how relationships evolve and deepen with time and difficulties.
In many ways this tale of a dysfunctional family reminded me of Animal Kingdom (2010) where an innocent joins a loving and close family only to discover they are a ruthless crime lords. This narrative is familiar and stretches back to The Godfather (1972) and this Scandinavian film takes the basics and lends it a modern, disturbing edge. Ida (Sandra Guldberg Camp), a seventeen year old withdrawn girl, is sent by a stretched social services to live with her Aunt Bodil (Side Babett Knudsen) after her mother dies in a car accident. Welcomed by Bodil and her three adult sons she soon discovers that the Club they run is a front for a loan shark business where intimidation, threats and violence are used on defaulters. Ida finds herself easily drawn into the life of crime until one day things go very wrong and she realises there's a price to pay. This is an interesting film and Kampp gives a subtle performance of a girl both trapped yet unleashed into a world she doesn't understand. It's in the complex relationships between the family members that the film is focused and consequently this is not a film with action although shocks do occur. Worth checking out.