Film Festivals: Ungrateful Beings (2025) by Olmo Omerzu: A tense family drama unraveling under the summer sun
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When love, language, and guilt collide on the coast
Ungrateful Beings (2025) is a psychological drama directed by Olmo Omerzu and co-written with Kasha Jandácková and Nebojsa Pop Tasic. Starring Barbora Bobulova, Antonín Chmela, and Dexter Franc, the film follows a father who takes his bilingual children on what should be a peaceful seaside holiday. What begins as a warm, sunlit escape quickly turns ominous when his teenage daughter’s summer romance becomes entangled with a local murder investigation.
Omerzu, known for his precise tone and quiet tension (Winter Flies, A Night Too Young), crafts an atmosphere of emotional disquiet beneath everyday gestures. The story explores not just the mystery of the murder, but the unseen fractures of family life—misunderstandings born of language, culture, and unspoken resentment.
Premiering at San Sebastián Film Festival, Ungrateful Beings earned 1 major nomination, praised for its direction, performances, and chilling restraint.
Why to Recommend: A sunlit thriller of silence and suspicion
Family tension turned psychological labyrinth: Beneath its coastal charm lies an unsettling portrait of how small misunderstandings evolve into devastating emotional ruptures. Omerzu uses the setting—a bright, relaxed beach town—as ironic contrast to the darkness creeping into the family dynamic.Each glance and pause carries ambiguity, transforming the everyday into quiet menace.
A fresh take on generational distance: The film captures the delicate, shifting power between parent and child. The father’s attempt to hold his family together mirrors his struggle to control the uncontrollable.His children’s bilingualism becomes symbolic—of both freedom and estrangement, of growing beyond the parent’s language and grasp.
Where to watch (industry professionals): https://pro.festivalscope.com/film/ungrateful-beings
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37964046/
Link Review: https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/484071/
What is the Trend Followed: European psychological realism with moral unease
Ungrateful Beings joins a recent wave of Central European psychological dramas that use family relationships as mirrors of moral and emotional decay.
Postmodern moral fables: Following the tradition of Michael Haneke, Joanna Hogg, and Cristi Puiu, Omerzu crafts tension through stillness and ambiguity rather than overt conflict.
The Mediterranean noir aesthetic: Set against a deceptively bright landscape, it merges the tone of sunlit serenity with psychological dread—echoing The Lost Daughter and Swimming Pool.
Intercultural identity and communication: Language barriers and cultural dissonance—hallmarks of modern European cinema—become tools to expose emotional disconnection.
Minimalist storytelling: Sparse dialogue, controlled framing, and quiet pacing heighten the film’s moral unease. Each scene feels both ordinary and loaded with unseen consequence.
Coming-of-age in moral shadows: The daughter’s romance is less about love than about agency—her first experience with freedom becoming entangled in guilt and secrecy.
Summary: The film belongs to Europe’s “moral mystery” trend—stories that investigate not the crime itself, but the quiet corruption of intimacy and conscience.
Director’s Vision: Ordinary people, extraordinary silence
Olmo Omerzu’s cinematic philosophy rests on contradiction—how polite normalcy hides emotional chaos. In Ungrateful Beings, his restrained tone creates tension not through violence, but through the unease of being misunderstood.
Emotional observation over action: Omerzu’s camera observes rather than intrudes, transforming family conversation into psychological choreography.
The sea as mirror: The bright coastal setting reflects the duality of the story—beauty and danger intertwined. Every reflection in the water hints at something concealed below.
Universal intimacy: Though rooted in Central Europe, Omerzu crafts a story that speaks to global themes of alienation, guilt, and the failure to communicate love across generations.
Themes: Family, guilt, and the limits of language
The impossibility of control: A father’s desire to protect his children becomes his undoing, revealing that love can suffocate when mixed with fear.
Language and identity: Bilingualism symbolizes division—the struggle between two worlds, two selves, and two versions of truth.
Moral ambiguity: No character is innocent. Everyone hides something, and the film resists assigning blame.
Coming-of-age as emotional fracture: The daughter’s romance introduces her to adult contradictions—passion, betrayal, and moral consequence.
Isolation in togetherness: The family’s shared vacation becomes a study of loneliness, each member speaking but no one truly hearing.
Key Success Factors: Subtle tension, visual control, emotional depth
Powerful performances: Barbora Bobulova brings emotional fragility and strength to her role, while Antonín Chmela and Dexter Franc ground the children’s perspectives with quiet realism.
Cinematic restraint: The cinematography alternates between warm natural light and uneasy shadows, using composition to express what dialogue cannot.
Sound and silence: Natural sounds—waves, footsteps, murmurs—create an aural rhythm that replaces traditional score-driven suspense.
Complex simplicity: Omerzu’s mastery lies in understatement—allowing mystery and meaning to build slowly, almost imperceptibly.
Awards & Nominations: Subtle artistry recognized
Premiering at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, Ungrateful Beings earned 1 nomination for its direction and screenplay. Critics highlighted Omerzu’s confident tonal control and his ability to turn a domestic story into an existential riddle.
Critics Reception: Elegant, restrained, and morally unsettling
Cineuropa: “Omerzu finds the knife edge between tenderness and cruelty. His family dramas cut quietly, but deeply.”
Variety: “A hauntingly sunlit story about guilt, translation, and the price of silence.”
Gazettely: “Twisting the knife of family drama—Omerzu crafts discomfort with surgical precision.”
Eye for Film: “A film about language, power, and love’s limitations—observed with cold empathy and psychological insight.”
Summary: Critics celebrate Ungrateful Beings as a thoughtful, atmospheric exploration of familial tension, confirming Omerzu as one of Central Europe’s most distinct voices.
Reviews: A quiet storm beneath calm waters
Festival audiences: Praised its understated tension and visual beauty, calling it “a film that hides its violence in politeness.”
Cinematic observers: Admired its realism and moral ambiguity, noting that “the true mystery is not the murder, but the family itself.”
Viewers’ consensus: “A slow burn that lingers long after the credits—a story where every silence feels like an accusation.”
Summary: Ungrateful Beings rewards patience, offering emotional precision instead of spectacle.
Release Date on Streaming: Late 2025 (Europe & VOD platforms)
After its festival circuit, Ungrateful Beings is set to release on MUBI, Filmin, and Curzon Home Cinema, reaching audiences drawn to European auteur cinema and intimate psychological storytelling.
Theatrical Release: An intricate European co-production
Release date: September 21, 2025 (Spain)
Runtime: 1h 50m (110 min)
Countries of origin: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, France, Slovakia, Croatia
Language: Multilingual (Czech, English, Slovenian)
Production company: EndorfilmThe film reflects modern European collaboration—culturally hybrid, emotionally nuanced, and aesthetically meticulous.
Movie Trend: Emotional thrillers of the everyday
Omerzu’s film aligns with Europe’s growing “emotional thriller” movement, where domestic life becomes the stage for quiet catastrophes. It shares thematic DNA with The Lost Daughter, Force Majeure, and The Chambermaid, redefining suspense through psychology rather than action.
Social Trend: Parenting, privilege, and the moral fatigue of modern families
Ungrateful Beings resonates with contemporary anxieties around parental control, communication, and moral disconnection. It reflects how well-meaning families can unravel under the pressure of emotional inarticulacy and hidden guilt. In a multicultural, multilingual Europe, Omerzu’s story captures the fractures that appear when love can’t be translated.
Final Verdict: Subtle, sunlit, and quietly devastating
Ungrateful Beings is a precise, introspective exploration of family, guilt, and the limits of love. With Olmo Omerzu’s poised direction and Barbora Bobulova’s magnetic performance, it turns a summer vacation into an autopsy of trust and misunderstanding.Verdict: A sunlit psychological drama—beautifully shot, emotionally piercing, and unflinchingly human.
