What happens to love and family when life suddenly has an expiration date? In this riveting drama based on the director’s own experiences, in-demand choreographer Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovic) and prize-winning, workaholic theater director Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) have been together for 20 years, albeit sans marriage. They juggle prestigious and demanding careers with their blended family of biological children and step-children. Everyone seems content enough, although Anja feels a bit sulky that she bears the brunt of running the busy Oslo household and preparing for the holidays. But just before Christmas Anja receives some bad news. In her decidedly unsentimental second feature, director Maria Sødahl shows, with the aid of two dynamic lead performances from Hovic and Skarsgård, that there is nothing like a terminal diagnosis to concentrate the mind and focus on what’s important in life.

Writer/director Maria Sødahl is expected to be in attendance on January 4 and 5.