Home Sweet Home (Hjem kaere hjem, 2025) ‘Berlinale’ Movie Review: Jette Søndergaard’s Heartrending Performance Drives This Sobering and Keenly Observed Drama

Home Sweet Home” (Hjem kaere hjem, 2025), a Danish drama, follows a home carer juggling her personal and professional responsibilities. The film takes a close look at her monotonous life as she visits her old clients and attends to their needs. Frelle Petersen, who has written and directed this film, has previously covered the themes of old age and loss in “Uncle” (2019) and “Forever” (2022). His new film embodies a distinctly cold, harsh look, which often defines medical dramas. Still, he offers a surprisingly tender outlook on the film’s heavy dramatic themes.

Jette Søndergaard leads this film as Sophie, a divorced mother with a 10-year-old kid, who works as a professional carer. She offers home visits to her old clients, who suffer from things that often come with old age, whether it’s memory loss, health conditions, or loneliness. Sophie intently listens to them, cleans after them, and feeds them. Unlike her peers, she does not judge them for their behavioral issues and is characteristically kind and patient. She doesn’t mind listening to them bicker and is sympathetic to their pain even when they are not the kindest people to be around.

In her personal life, Sophie tries to take care of Clara, her young daughter, who expects the things that a kid her age would expect. She seeks Sophie’s presence and her attention, which isn’t always easy for Sophie to provide, given her taxing job. It gets even harder as her former partner, who shares Clara’s custody with her, has a relatively better social life. So, Clara doesn’t always gravitate toward her since her interests often lie in what she needs at any given moment. Sophie does her best to respect Clara’s outlook to manage her despair about Clara’s emotional distance.

While trying to find a balance between these parts of her life, Sophie learns about the harsh realities of her work beyond her control. When she is working, she can be more in charge of her situation despite the mental and physical labor it puts her through. Her overall demeanor reflects her interest and her deep respect for this profession. However, the systemic issues distress her more than the work itself. The workload is unpredictable and keeps piling up over employees like her. It becomes worse when money comes into the picture. After toiling on behalf of the organization she gets pay cuts rather than raises. That’s only a part of these behind-the-scenes aspects affecting her peace and sanity.

“Home Sweet Home” ties in all these elements in a drama that is intricate and deeply personal. While following multiple narratives, it focuses on Sophie’s. She becomes a representational figure to reveal the professional strains in her profession. At the same time, her personal life is rendered with an incredible amount of detail. She gets exhausted trying to balance her duties as a mother and a carer. The film offers keen distinctions within these roles since her motherhood ties in with co-parenting responsibilities and her profession ties in with her employment.

Sophie experiences a push-and-pull relationship with Clara, who considers her mother’s absence almost as a form of rejection. Sophie puts on a brave face, and calmly goes about her day, despite how Clara, her clients, or her employees treat her. At times the stress gets to her and leads her to have or want to have an emotional outburst. In those moments, she struggles with loneliness and the feeling of being undervalued for her efforts. There are moments when you sense that a kind word of appreciation can light her day.

Instead, she is forced to manage her expectations in the face of job insecurity, low pay, and motherly guilt. One mistake and she will get fired, and if she requests a day off, she’ll live with a fear of being replaced. Jette Søndergaard brings grace and dignity to her portrayal of this burdened character. She presents Sophie as someone who is emotionally strong but longs for the warmth that she offers to those around her. Sophie’s calm, pleasant demeanor doesn’t always reflect what’s going on in her head. Søndergaard depicts Sophie’s misery as lucidly as her outward presence.

The script makes all its characters appear distinct and real even though they are developed from known archetypes. It also underscores the root of their emotions based on circumstances. So, you can distinguish the cause behind Clara’s silence as to whether it is because of anger or regret. The script also introduces the themes of aging and loss as Sophie witnesses them firsthand. The journeys of her clients teach her in one or the other way. Their anecdotes offer her unexpected doses of wisdom while her experience of working offers her a rooted understanding of the difference between life and survival.