Zhala Zhino Rifat

A simple and ubiquitous pose: two glossily made-up women gaze into the camera’s eye and smile. But what begins as an ordinary image of femininity descends into raw uncanniness as the camera audaciously lingers and zooms, illuminating the tense and gruelling bodily labour involved in holding onto something that may have seemed so natural.

Nilo is a feminist writer, living an orderly life with her husband and 13-year-old daughter Laura. When her irresponsible sister Maya, whose projects constantly tend to bomb, both "kidnaps" Nilo's Volvo and daughter and heads south, Nilo tags along. The goal of the trip is Portugal, where the sisters’ complicated mother recently diagnosed with cancer lives, together with Maya’s son, who it has finally become time to take responsibility for.

A simple and ubiquitous pose: two glossily made-up women gaze into the camera’s eye and smile. But what begins as an ordinary image of femininity descends into raw uncanniness as the camera audaciously lingers and zooms, illuminating the tense and gruelling bodily labour involved in holding onto something that may have seemed so natural.