‘A Happy Family’ review: A single mother struggles against an unforgiving system in unbalanced Swiss drama

Dir: Jan-Eric Mack. Switzerland. 2026. 120mins

The sinking feeling comes in two waves with this well-intentioned but narratively ill-conceived story of a cash-strapped single mother in the Swiss city of Zurich. The first wave is fuelled by empathy: you can’t help but root for Niki (played thoughtfully by Anna Schinz, who co-wrote the script) as she stumbles precariously in the grip of a child-protection system that seems engineered to trip her up as she tries to make ends meet for her and her two children. The second is driven by a sense of missed opportunity: just when A Happy Family has established itself as a social-realist drama with a credible sense of claustrophobia and a nuanced approach to right and wrong, it begins to take some tonal and storytelling swerves from which it never fully recovers.

Makes some increasingly odd moves into thriller territory

The Swiss- and German-language film launches domestically at the Zurich Film Festival following a world premiere at Karlovy Vary, where it was the first Swiss film ever to play in competition and Schinz was awarded the Best Actress prize. Swiss audiences should appreciate its keen-eyed view of local economic and class divisions when it’s released in the country by DCM Film Distribution in January 2027. The film’s appeal in Switzerland and, to a lesser extent, other German-speaking territories should also be bolstered by Schinz’s profile from two popular Swiss TV series, Wilder and Davos 19 (Jan-Eric Mack directed episodes of both; this is his first feature).

Niki and her two primary-school-age children, Leonie (Annalisa Ferriani) and Jimmy (Lir Kunkel), are already being supervised by social services when we first meet them in their small flat on a Zurich housing estate. The dynamics between mother and children, and between the children themselves, are sensitively drawn as Niki tries hard, but with some awkward missteps, to persuade the social worker, Mrs Weber (Bettina Stucky), sitting in the corner of their kitchen that all is well. There is no mention of a second parent or any sign of a wider support network of family or friends.

Niki works two jobs, one in an industrial laundry and the other in the cloakroom of a nightclub, to fund family life and pay off a debt of 70,000 Swiss francs (approximately £64,000) which is being managed by the state. She is also receiving training in retail sales (perhaps a requirement of the state; it’s not explained), leading to some painful scenes in which she tries to sell perfume to fellow students and succeeds only in looking dead behind the eyes. Cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer (The Outrun) lends the film a slick but unshowy realism, with occasional, more expressive flourishes (including a strong slo-mo scene at a children’s party) designed to reflect Niki’s inner emotional state.

Niki is a dedicated parent in many ways, but there’s a naivety and impetuousness to her – shown especially in scenes with her friend Manu (Alireza Bayram) – that gets her into trouble. We can feel the walls closing in, and Schinz’s performance movingly conveys a sense of just about holding it together while also showing the genuine love and joy felt between her and her kids. Then a terrible mistake – an accident at home one night while she is out working – pushes the film into another gear and Niki’s kids are put into foster care in rural Raron, in the distant canton of Valais near the Italian border.

It’s here that A Happy Family shifts not only geographically but tonally, making some increasingly odd moves into thriller territory; a decision echoed by a mood change in Thomas Kuratli’s score. Niki embarks on a misguided quest to get her children back, and the story leans on some lazy mechanics of disguise and subterfuge which are far too easy to unpick. It’s to his credit that Mack’s direction generally maintains interest and some suspense even in scenes where the screenplay increasingly defies credibility. But the shift puts a halt to any truly serious attempt to understand the reality of forced separation, both for parents and for children, so that the film’s final resolution feels hollow and unearned.