By Sanita Fejzic

This week at the European Union Film Festival, which showcases award-winning and Oscar-submitted films from 27 countries across the European Union, Eat Sleep Die is this critic’s top choice. It plays on Friday, November 22, and if this movie doesn’t win the Oscar for best Foreign Film, I’m certain it will be a runner-up. Check out the trailer trailer here.

The film is set in Sweden, and explores such social problems as unemployment and immigration issues while maintaining a strong narrative about individual and familial realities. It manages to tell the story of personal and collective struggles with a balance of simplicity and urgency.

The handheld camera, natural lighting, and minimal sound help to tell the story of Raša (newcomer Nemina Lukac), a young woman originally from Montenegro, who gets laid off from the factory where she works to support herself and her father.

She decides to put off telling the bad news to her father as she begins to look for another job. The plot is universal and everyone can relate to the theme of loosing a job — the delicacy of this film lies in the ability of director Gabriela Pichler to turn it into art.

The European Union Film Festival is a unique film festival that showcases movies you won’t see elsewhere. Ambassadors and filmmakers often introduce the films and mingle at complementary receptions afterward, and there is definitely a foreign atmosphere that goes beyond English subtitles. It runs until December 1^st and it’s definitely worth the night out.

Eat  Sleep  Die. Friday, November 22. 7 p.m. $12. Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.