THIS PLACE

V. T. NAYANI | CANADA  | 2022  | 87 MIN  | MOHAWK, PERSIAN, TAMIL, FRENCH + ENGLISH

Canadian director V.T. Nayani’s feature debut, starring Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs) and Priya Guns, is a queer love story about two young women – one Iranian and Kanienʼkehá꞉ka, the other Tamil – living in Toronto and dealing with difficult family legacies.

Kawenniióhstha has left her community of Kahnawà:ke to attend university in Toronto and to seek out her estranged father. A window into her parents’ past love story carefully illustrates the complicated dynamics at play when a mother chooses her Kanien’kehá:ka community over her Iranian partner. Malai (Priya Guns) is contemplating her post-university choices while living in a downtown apartment with her older brother, who has given up his own aspirations to provide for them both. Their relationship is strained and gets only more so when their father re-enters the picture. Kawenniióhstha and Malai, both daughters of refugees, find one another in a Toronto laundromat. With a spark and a missing notebook, their love story begins. However, big life events involving their respective fathers threaten to keep them apart. With dialogue in Mohawk, Persian, Tamil, French, and English, This Place is a unique love story with universal elements that will resonate beyond language and communities.

screening at Cinéma J.A. de Sève | NOVEMBER 25TH 7PM

ONLINE (November 26th to 30th)