SXSW 2025 Review: MY UNCLE JENS, Torn By Tension, Comic and Otherwise

Fish and visitors stink after three days, even if you're related to them.

My Uncle Jens
The film enjoyed its world premiere at SXSW 2025.

It sounds funny, until it happens to you: what happens if an unexpected visitor knocks on your door in the middle of a dark and stormy night?

If you're the courteous and respectful Akam (Peiman Azizpour), you let the visitor inside your home, after he's identified himself as your long unseen Uncle Khdr (Hamza Agoshi). Quickly adapting the name Jens, to make it easier for his new Norwegian friends and neighbors, the older gentleman just as quickly makes himself at home with the flustered Akam and his flatmates, Pernille (Theresa Frostad Eggesbø) and Stian (Magnus Lysbakken).

It doesn't take very long before Akam starts looking for a way out of the situation, however, especially as he realizes that Jens, who seems pushy and invasive, is not in a hurry to end his visit. Who is this man, Akam asks his mother, safely some distance away. She is evasive, which only adds to Akam's increasing unease.

Written and directed by ​​Brwa Vahabpour in his feature debut, My Uncle Jens begins as a comedy of manners and a clash of cultures. Uncle Jens says he has arrived directly from (the Iranian part of) Kurdistan, and expects, nay demands, immediate respect from Akam, and answers to his rather personal questions. Jens exudes a superior attitude; he walks with confident swagger; he criticizes Akam freely and questions the choices he has made in his life.

As a school teacher, Akam is accustomed to asking his students questions, not being required to answer to someone older than himself. Akam is made keenly aware by Jens that he has allowed his Kurdish background and culture to fade from his life, in favor of blending in with his Norwegian surroundings, making him extremely uncomfortable.

Akam begins to question why, exactly, Jens has come to Norway, which leads him to an encounter with an immigration worker named Elina (Sarah Francesca Brænne). Even as he seeks more (anonymous) information, the two are drawn together, which leads to further complications.

The light-hearted earlier segments gradually give way to weightier sequences with great resonance that is extremely relevant in present times. The very capable actors deepen the narrative with adept performances.

Deftly moving from comic collisions to cultural misunderstandings to romantic interludes to skittering tensions to dramatic consequences, My Uncle Jens proves to be an altogether unexpected and surprisingly unsettling experience.