'Housekeeping for Beginners' review: Loves wins in this triumphant film
“Housekeeping for Beginners” begins with a shot of a painting on a wall hanging just a little askew. It’s an apt metaphor for what’s in store.
Writer and director Goran Stolevski gives us an atypical family portrait that’s brilliantly political without being preachy, loving without being maudlin and epic by being specifically tiny.
This is the complex story set mostly in a villa outside Skopje, the capital city of North Macedonia, that has become a refuge for those not in the mainstream — queer, Roma or a mix of both, ethnic minorities colliding with sexual ones in a repressive, traditional society.
Shot entirely with handheld cameras and using subtitles, “Housekeeping for Beginners” may seem daunting at first as viewers are thrust into a chaotic, multigenerational household with no navigation.
But Stolevski’s use of cinema verite — shaky close-ups, capturing routine things like the brushing of teeth — and globalization mean we see things we know even if it is North Macedonia — boring bus commutes, Grindr, the joy of picking up kids from kindergarten, Adidas footwear and singing loudly along to very bad pop songs in the living room. They might be Serbian pop songs, but no matter.