Victor Danell’s film Watch the Skies—released in Sweden as UFO Sweden back in 2022 but only arriving internationally in 2025—emerges as a curious hybrid: part adolescent adventure, part heartfelt family drama, and part nostalgic throwback to the era of VHS tapes, synthesizer soundtracks, and Spielberg-inspired encounters. At its core is a story about searching: a teenager scouring for the truth about her missing father, a ragtag community of ufologists chasing evidence of alien contact, and filmmakers experimenting with new technology in the hope of connecting across cultures. The result is uneven but memorable, a picture that dares to mix earnest emotion with sci-fi spectacle and cutting-edge presentation. The narrative orbits around Denise, played with a striking mix of toughness and vulnerability by Inez Dahl Torhaug. Denise has grown up in foster care, hardened by abandonment but still carrying the wound of her father’s disappearance. Her father was not just a parent but a passiona...