Sentimental Value ended up being my favorite film of 2025. And deservedly won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is a world-renowned director who reemerges into his daughters’ lives after the death of their mother (his ex-wife). His daughters Nora (Renate Reinste), and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are apprehensive about Gustav’s reemergence into their lives. Agnes is slightly more open to his return. Nora isn’t. However, they both carry a quiet, lingering resentment toward him. Years of absence, distance, and things left unsaid.
Gustav is a difficult man to read. He doesn’t communicate in a traditional sense. He seems to only understand people through art — framing emotions instead of expressing them. Gustav has written a new film—a personal story, drawn directly from their shared history. Using their tragic family history as the basis. And offers the lead role of his latest film to his daughter Nora—which she turns down. This is something Nora wants nothing to do with. Partly out of skepticism. She doesn’t trust his intentions. Plus, she’s a stage actor, not a film actor.
Gustav casts a famous Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) in the lead role instead. At the same time, Gustav wants to involve Agnes’s young son Erik in the film. A decision that reopens another wound. Agnes, who once acted in her father’s films as a child, understands exactly what that kind of exposure can do. She doesn’t want that for her son. There’s something invasive about this film. Like Gustav is trying to process their past on his terms.
The family’s house is also a character here, and central to the story. It becomes a constant presence as a container for past family history, and memory. But the excellent acting drives the story here. Layers upon layers of subtle meanings. There’s a heavy sadness running through all three of these main characters. There are no heroes or villains—just real, complex, and flawed people living through generational trauma.
Sentimental Value is a film about family. About the history, and living memory of the places we occupy. About the uncomfortable ways we use art to say the things we can’t say out loud. Writer, Director Joachim Trier continues to deliver honest, introspective, character-driven stories that explore existential crises. This is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.
SENTIMENATL VALUE. (2025). FIVE OUT OF FIVE POPCORN BAGS🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Rod Rioja 