During the picture-perfect dinner scene in its opening minutes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Home In You (Halva Halva in Swedish) is just a sitcom about a loving Lebanese family in suburban Stockholm. But then writer-creators Alexander Abdallah and Mustafa Al-Mashhadani pull the rug from under them: the Haddad family are about to either have their rent doubled or face eviction, and nobody has a clue what to do about it.
This dilemma is the lynchpin of this dramedy, which is a vivid tapestry of the trials of immigrant life. While Sweden is the series’ setting, Home In You makes astute observations about the broader dynamics of immigrants trying to carve out lives in any rich, Western country. And while it tackles serious topics, it’s careful to never take itself too seriously, pulling back the curtain on the Haddad family’s upbeat outlook with thoughtful touches of humour.
Ahmed (Isa Aouifia) and Nour (Helen Al-Janabi).
Over six episodes, Home In You ponders the impact that this eviction has on the family with sensitivity and pathos. Sure, there’s the obvious financial dimension: with a small catering business, mum Nour (Helen Al-Janabi) obviously can’t absorb the rent increase. Daughter Jamila (Jenna Chaaraoui) has casual work, but in the ultimate indignity, ends up helping out the very company that’s pushing her family out. But the eviction also reveals fault lines within the family: Nour and dad Ahmed (Isa Aouifia) may be the family providers, but they’re also dependent on their kids. Teenagers Jamila and Amin (Matteus Gezer) were raised in Stockholm, and end up having to forfeit parts of their own childhood to help their parents with things such as filling out long-winded forms for housing assistance — the kind of task that’s likely familiar to many second-generation immigrant kids, regardless of whether they’re in Sweden, Australia, or beyond.
Faced with so many challenges, it’s little wonder that the various Haddad family members start to wonder what their role is in Sweden. Home In You approaches these feelings with tact. The Haddad family doesn’t really face aggressive xenophobia that would provide an easy answer to a question like “am I welcome here?”. Instead, they’re subject to a parade of minor indignities. These range from the friendly-enough guy who denies Jamila and her friends entry to a party, on the basis of unspoken yet subtly implied racism, to the corporate drone who announces the family’s exorbitant rent increase in a cheery yet ultimately soulless way.
There’s a distinct feeling that the reason for the eviction is to gentrify the neighbourhood and bring in more “desirable” Swedish families — but with nobody putting that on the record explicitly, the Haddads just have to speculat why they’re faced with this misfortune.
Jamila (Jenna Chaaraouua) with a friend after their families receive the news about a huge increase in rent. Credit: Viaplay
But despite the heaviness of its main plot, Home In You doesn’t wallow in doom and gloom. Mixed in with the downsides of life in Sweden are positives, too: the summer greenery of the Haddads’ fictional Stockholm suburb, Smedsby, is lush and inviting. Then there’s their delightful neighbour, Ing-Marie, who helps the family out with confusing bureaucracy, who teaches the parents how to tango, and who’s ready to take to the streets in protest over the eviction.
Amin (Matteus Gezer). Credit: Viaplay
And the Haddad family — perhaps with the exception of Amin, who is acting out over the stress of the eviction — are equally able to stay optimistic. From Ahmed’s gentle jokes about Sweden’s love of paperwork to archetypal teen boy Amin cheekily teaching Ing-Marie how to say “prostitute” in Arabic, it has plenty of warm-hearted moments to balance out the nightmarish housing debacle. Pair that with an upbeat soundtrack of pop and hip hop, and it’s a lighthearted, delightful series, even with the eviction drama as its centrepiece.
This balance of humour and drama encapsulates the show’s bigger outlook on life: there’s highs and plenty of lows, and plenty of grey areas; it’s never totally clear whether or not the family feel welcome — or are welcome — in Sweden. And that’s OK: the Haddads can live without that clear answer, tolerating that ambiguity and putting their energy into finding joy in family and community. Home In You isn’t a show that asks “is Sweden good or bad to immigrants?”: rather, it asks “what are the joys and struggles of Lebanese life in Sweden?”
Home in You is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Home In You
