The Weight of a Man

Pete, 40, is a gentle but dangerously obese mechanic who lives with his mother Elli, whose fading memory and endless baking have taught him that food is the safest answer to every painful feeling. After a humiliating day at an amusement park with his eight-year-old son Aaro and a brutal warning from his doctor, Pete pins his hopes on bariatric surgery. If he can become smaller, he believes he can finally become a better father, a lovable partner and less of a burden.

As Pete begins exercising and grows closer to Jenna, a longtime acquaintance, his ex-wife Saara announces that she is moving 600 kilometres away with Aaro. Pete cannot say how devastated he is. He calls Helsinki an adventure, swallows his anger and turns to food whenever intimacy becomes unbearable. But when his body finally gives out and Elli’s dementia makes their home unsafe, Pete is forced to confront the damage caused by a lifetime of silence.

Surgery may still save Pete’s body, but it cannot repair his relationships for him. Before Aaro leaves, Pete must do the one thing he has avoided all his life: stop disappearing and finally be open about his emotions.