Tia Kouvo is a Finnish director and screenwriter based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her directorial feature, Family Time, follows an annual family Christmas get-together that sees the usual tensions rise when family members try to find connection, but aren’t always successful. The comedy-drama is based on her 2018 graduation short of the same name. In an email interview, Kouvo says her film asks the simple question: Can we ever get along better?

Congratulations! Your debut feature Family Time will have its world premiere is at the Berlinale in the Encounters strand. How does that feel? What are your expectations?

Thank you! It feels great. We just finished the film right before the festival so it’s great to get to show the film to an audience right away. What I expect is the chance to see what response the film gets from the Berlinale audience and to celebrate the work done with our team. We have a lot of cast and crew coming to the festival.

Before you graduated from Valand Academy of Art and Design with a degree in Film Directing in Sweden, you studied social psychology in Finland. How do you combine these two professions? Does one influence another?

I never worked in the field of social psychology, it was just something I studied before getting into film school. But you could say I have an anthropological gaze in my films. My films are not so much dramas as they are studies of human behavior. So, in both disciplines I’m nurturing the same interest, which is people. Their relationships to other people, society and themselves. The interrelatedness is what fascinates me.

Your graduation short film Family Time (2018) was made as a collaboration between film schools in Sweden and Finland and won awards both at Helsinki International Film Festival and Tampere International Film Festival. How did you get the idea for this story?

I was already pitching the idea for the feature film in my first year of film school, back in 2015. I knew there was going to be a family and a Christmas celebration, and certain things were going to happen during that celebration. But I struggled for a long time with what the essence of the story was and how to film it, and eventually, the only way to find out was to try it out. So that’s why I made the short film, to test the idea and working method with the camera and with actors. Making the short also led to many other positives that supported me in making the feature film, not the least the fact that some of the actors are the same and the cinematographer, Jesse Jalonen, also worked on the short.

Family Time is an exploration of family life; on disconnection and intergenerational patterns. The comedy-drama follows an annual family Christmas get-together that sees the usual tensions rise. Why did you decide to make a film about family?

Family is a theme that is so important to look closely at, because we are social beings and most of us have a family of some sort. Nonetheless, sharing your life with other people and trying to get along is also difficult. The film is asking; can something be done about the problems? Can we ever get along better? Also, I think we lack for images of family life that are truthful in their depiction of it. Only when we look at something truthfully, without shying away from what’s ugly or shameful, can we really start addressing the issues.

It feels a very Finnish story but still relatable in other cultures. How did you find the tone of the movie?

That is hard to say. I guess I have developed my own kind of humor in previous short films, and also a way of using the camera; using mostly long, static shots that calmly observe a situation.

In a Variety article you are quoted saying: “I want to show all these missed opportunities for establishing real connections and just having a nice time together. These people love each other, so it’s sad when they don’t manage to address real issues and leave without saying anything of importance. My aim is to ask: ‘Why is it so difficult to be happy? As an individual and as a family?” Do you have an answer to that question: Why is it so difficult to be happy?

Well, I think it has to do with whether you can feel that you are connected to yourself, your own feelings and what you want in life, and to other people. And it’s difficult to feel connected to other people if you are not fully connected with who you are. In the film, different characters have different relations to this. Some of the characters are more in conflict with their life choices, and I’m focusing the story more on them. Because I want to show that struggle, whether it is a quiet or an anxiously expressed one.

Family Time is produced by Aamu Film Company. They are known for producing well known, critically acclaimed and award-winning movies like Compartment No. 6 and The Happiest Day in The Life of Olli Mäki. How did the collaboration start? How was your experience working with Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka?

Our collaboration started in 2018 when Jussi had seen the short Family Time. He loved it, so he emailed me and suggested a meeting. We first tried to make a short film together but that didn’t get financing, so we moved straight on to make Family Time. And from then on, everything has gone very fast. Aamu is a great company and we’re already talking about a new film.

Besides Family Time, you have filmed previously the short movies Hollywood (2022), We Retired People (2018), Growing Pains (2018), Chat with me (2014) and documentary Rio Rita (2012). What did you learn from those projects that helped you with your new movie?

You learn so much with every film that it’s difficult to put in one short answer. We Retired People was a turning point. It was a short piece I made in film school. It has two scenes but initially, I had planned for it to be three scenes. I had three shooting days, so my teacher said: take away one of the scenes, so you get more time to focus on the two scenes you select. It was such good advice, because, in this business, we are so used to working in a rush. And my teacher was adamant about getting the experience of succeeding in what you are trying to do. And so, for the first time, I had time to really get to the point where I wanted to get, to direct the small details and get the timing right, which is so important when creating comedy with long shots. And the film went well in festivals, which was fun because it was never even intended to become a short film.

How do you spend family time?

During the past year that I’ve been making Family Time, I’ve been back to Finland a lot and stayed for many days in my childhood home, where my dad still lives. We watch TV together and eat pizza.