In Vilhunen’s previous films – not counting her 2013 short Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?, which was nominated for an Oscar – she’s dealt with young protagonists. In Four Little Adults, though, she avoids the kind of bedhopping, app-using youngsters you might see in Challengers. “I wanted to show fragilities,” she explains. “People become vulnerable in new ways when they get older.
People have told me it’s given them space to be different with their partner. Maybe it’s given them room and acceptance for emotions that have been puzzling them.” However, Vilhunen acknowledges that some potential viewers have deliberately avoided the film due to the word ‘polyamory’. On message boards, she’s noticed vocal opposition to non-monogamy as a concept; plenty of people, she believes, don’t want to confront certain questions with their partner.