- This Place
- Directed by V.T. Nayani
- Written by Devery Jacobs, Golshan Abdmoulaie and V.T. Nayani
- Starring Devery Jacobs, Priya Guns and Ali Momen
- Classification PG; 87 minutes
- Opens in select theatres July 7
This place … It’s a sigh. A lament. A feeling of resignation. An exultation. An expression of hopefulness and hopelessness at the same time. V.T. Nayani’s debut feature film is a love letter to Aterón:to/Toronto, as well as a commentary on the many ways in which its citizenry feels overlooked. It’s complicated.
The film opens with a scene familiar to the children of refugees who’ve fled persecution in their homeland; an account told and retold so many times that it becomes an origin story.
A Tamil man destroys his passport in an airplane washroom before returning to his seat. Behind him sit two Iranian men, nervous in their desperation. When the Tamil man is detained at the airport, the Iranian men make their escape into Canada. Decades later, the Tamil man and one of the Iranian men’s daughters meet at a laundromat in Toronto.
Malai (Priya Guns) is mulling over pursuing postgrad studies, while living in a downtown apartment with her older brother, Ahrun, who gave up his own aspirations to provide shelter and the possibility of a future for the two siblings. But the bond between them is tested when their father seeks to re-establish a relationship after a cancer diagnosis, years after breaking their trust due to his alcohol dependence. Malai is open to second chances, Ahrun is skeptical.
Meanwhile, Kawenniióhstha (Devery Jacobs) has moved from her community of Kahnawà:ke near Montreal, to attend university in Toronto. She also harbours the desire to seek out her estranged father, Behrooz (Ali Momen), a man her mother left when she chose her Kanien’kehá:ka community over her Iranian partner.
Priya Guns, left, and Devery Jacobs in a scene from This Place.Vortex Media
A missing notebook sparks a connection and a queer love story unfolds, against the backdrop of their combined, complicated histories. The fabric of the past and present rub against each other, creating friction in Malai and Kawenniióhstha’s coming-of-age together story.
Co-written by Nayani, Jacobs and Golshan Abdmoulaie, the film’s dialogue switches between Mohawk, Persian, Tamil, French and English – a reflection of how people live in this city, navigating identities and code-switching multiple times a day. The cinematography is gorgeous, lighting up Guns and Jacobs so beautifully they appear to glisten on screen.
TIFF 2018 Rising Star Jacobs has been noted for her work on Sterlin Harjo’s critically acclaimed FX series Reservation Dogs, and she brings that assured quality to her role as a biracial child in search of the other part of her identity. It was also great to see other recognizable faces such as Momen playing Kawenniióhstha’s estranged father, and Ali Badshah in a small role as a fellow Iranian refugee. Guns, whose debut novel, Your Driver Is Waiting, was described as a “blazing debut” by The Guardian, is a welcome discovery as an actor, as are the other supporting characters usually seen hovering in the background. Torontonians will recognize local hangouts such as Banu or Glad Day Bookshop, or even Toronto Metropolitan University.
There are moments, though, when This Place can feel heavy-handed. Some of the conversations between Malai and Kawenniióhstha sound like pat exchanges or feel a little too on the nose, especially if they are centred around their multi-hyphenated identities. Moreover, not every word needs to be subtitled. At times the score is a little intrusive, a heavy suggestion of what the viewer should be feeling.
Nevertheless, Nayani’s debut feature film addressing all the complexities of this place we’re in – physically or emotionally – is a welcome addition to the Canadian canon.