Holiday

Director: Isabella Eklöf
Screenwriters: Johanne Algren, Isabella Eklöf

Institute History

  • 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Michael, a Danish gangster, takes his girlfriend, Sascha, and his extended criminal family on a luxury vacation in a fancy villa in gorgeous Bodrum, Turkey. Shopping, waterparks, barbecuing, and hardcore partying fill their days and nights. Having little regard for anything or anybody outside their world, they exist in a bubble of excess that is governed by Michael’s rules—and if the code is broken, they all know that violence will follow. But when Sascha befriends a Dutchman with romantic designs on her, she toys with Michael’s authority and creates a situation that cannot end well.

In a breakthrough performance, Victoria Carmen Sonne fully commits as Sascha, the complex young moll that eludes assumptions and expectations. First-time writer/director Isabella Eklöf has a dynamic visual touch and a flair for dark comedy. She creates a destabilizing discord as she elaborately fills the frame with colorful, seductive images while telling a disturbing, graphic tale of brutality and power. Holiday provokes and challenges—and even implicates—the viewer in its unsettling reflection of our times.

— K.Y.

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]