Juulia is a successful, progressive MEP in a party that champions equality. Until a few years ago, she could have said that she and her husband, Matias, a pastor, were fulfilled, living a seemingly idyllic family life. However, when she learns of her husband’s affair with Ennis, she suffers a breakdown. Inviting both Matias and his lover to the same table, Juulia suggests that they consider a polyamorous relationship, meaning loving multiple partners. Feeling secure in her new relationship format, Juulia takes a liking to Miska, a Gen Z member of the queer community, and develops a model of an extended family. What she doesn’t yet know is that the challenges in polyamory are not so different from those faced by people in monogamous relationships… 

Polyamory, with all its responsibilities and freedom of choice, is a new social phenomenon. The internationally successful Finnish director Selma Vilhunen’s drama is disarmingly optimistic, tautly scripted and does not exactly offer a passing flirtation with the subject – she tackles it with a sometimes unbridled emotional frankness. Her 2012 short film Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film, highlighted several of her main themes: family life, routine, fidelity between partners, and new social contracts. Having screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others, the feature film, starring emerging Finnish actress Alma Pöysti as the liberal politician, transcends its storyline about extended family and games with feelings, offering a poignant and ironic commentary on love as perhaps at once the most overrated and the most underrated concept in contemporary society.