This Place

TIFF 2022: This Place Review

There is a moment in director V.T. Nayani’s tender romance This Place where fledgling writer, Kawenniióhstha (Devery Jacobs, who co-wrote the script), tells her new partner, Malai (Priya Guns), that she needs space. While a common trope in most romance films, especially of the Hallmark variety, the proclamation carries a far heavier weight here. One understands, even if Malai does not, that it is impossible to fit into the room of someone’s heart when the doorway is filled with a legacy of historical baggage that still needs to be unpacked.

It is this embracing of complicated histories and how they reverberate through generations that makes Nayani’s film such a delight to experience. Although the sparks between the two women may have ignited after crossing paths in a Toronto laundromat, the wick was decades in the making. Moving from Montreal to Toronto to attend university, Kawenniióhstha has another mission in mind that she has yet to tell her mother. A mixture of Iranian and Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk), she is determined to find the estranged father she never knew. Hoping to get a better understanding of her Iranian side, she is unprepared for the difficult truths about her mother and their Kanienʼkehá꞉ka community that the search uncovers.

Malai has her own estranged father issues that she must confront. Living with her older brother Ahrun (Alex Joseph) since their mother passed away, she has not spoken to her father in years. A Tamil immigrant who fled the Sri Lankan Civil War and landed in Canada in 1989, on the same flight as Kawenniióhstha’s father, who was also fleeing conflict in Iran, Malai father’s alcoholism caused a divide in the family. Now ill and in the hospital, Malai must decide how much she can forgive if she hopes to reconnect with her dad.

The notion of learning to forgive adds a fascinating layer to Nayani’s film. It allows the film to work as both an engaging romance, and a profound exploration of the intersection of family, community, and identity. Just as Kawenniióhstha and Malai are figuring out who they are both as individuals and a couple, they are also coming to terms with the difficult decisions their families were forced to make.

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Framing all of this within the confines of a young couple romantically getting to know each other, Nayani manages to make the cultural conversations feel natural. One learns just enough about the Iranian, Mohawk and Tamil communities to understand not only the parents’ choices, but also the ways people can be blinded their own traumatic experiences. Just because one person made the tough decision to leave everything behind, does not mean another in a similar situation will follow suit.

Nayani skillfully weaves the diverging views the characters express in a way that makes the audience look at both Canada and the immigrant experience in a different light. As is the case with many nations, the country is viewed in the film as both a place of refuge and hope for some, and a place of oppression for others. This Place is the type of film that everyone will identify with regardless of what part of the world they may be from.

One would thinks such heavy topics would take away from the central romance, but it only enhances it. Whether it is the choice of lighting used in certain scenes or the way the women steal glances of each other in the courting phase, the romantic tension is electric. Jacobs and Guns each deliver strong performances, displaying great chemistry throughout.

Anchored by wonderful performances and a richly layered story with universal appeal, This Place is a beautiful love story that warms the heart and stimulates the mind.

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