If Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs is in it, I’m watching it. And that’s how I came to screen This Place, a feature directed by V. T. Nayani with a screenplay by Jacobs, Nayani, and Golshan Abdmoulaie, as part of NewFest 2023. I’m glad I did, because Jacobs shines in This Place, a multicultural coming of age and love story involving two outsiders in Toronto.
In case you don’t already know her work, Jacobs is an indigenous Canadian actor, writer and director with a most impressive resume. She’s probably best known in the United States as Elora Dana, one of the lead characters on the TV series Reservation Dogs, as the lead character Aila in the 2013 film Rhymes for Young Girls, and as the supporting character Sam Black Crow in the TV series American Gods.
In This Place, Jacobs plays Kawenniióhstha, an aspiring writer who grew up in a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community near Montreal and is moving to Toronto to attend university. That choice does not please her mother Wari (Brittany LeBorgne), who would prefer to keep her daughter closer, but Kawenniióhstha is certain she can succeed in the white world while retaining a connection to her native community as well.
Malai (Priya Guns) is a Tamal woman whose family moved from Sri Lanka to Canada, is a star student in the university’s math department. They meet cute when Kawenniióhstha loses her notebook and Malai finds and returns it. Over tea, Malai offers to show Kawenniióhstha around the neighborhood, and they hit it off immediately. Both are in need of female friendship, so they start meeting for study dates, which leads to more general discussions about life, and things carry on from there.
As it happens, they have several things in common. One is that both feel like strangers in Canada and are often mistaken for members of other dark-skinned, dark-haired nationalities. Another is that neither identifies with the country in which they were born, choosing instead to base their identities on their ethnicities. A third, which is not revealed immediately, is that both are trying to resolve matters regarding their fathers. Kawenniióhstha’s real reason for studying in Toronto is to track down her father, an Iranian who doesn’t know she exists. Malai wants her older brother Ahrun (Alex Joseph) to reconcile with their alcoholic father (Muraly Srinarayanathas), now hospitalized with cancer, before the father dies.
Both fathers are seen in a brief prologue, but the meaning of those events only becomes clear as the story works itself out. Malai has another issue to work out: she’s been offered a place in graduate school but doesn’t want to keep depending on her brother for support. For his part, Ahrun is both proud of her and disgruntled at being the sole breadwinner when he’d like to be studying as well.
This Place is Nayani’s first narrative feature and it has some of the hallmarks of a directorial debut, including uncertain pacing and an overly complicated plot that seems more interested in filling in the characters’ backstories than in elaborating on their present-day realities. What makes it worth seeing are the performances by Jacobs and Guns, and the combination of a female coming of age and lesbian love story with a diverse cast and set in one of the most multicultural cities in the world. | Sarah Boslaugh
This Place is available for home viewing through Oct. 24 from the NewFest 2023 web site.
Finally watched This Place and loved it! The performances by Jacobs and Guns were incredible, and I really enjoyed the multicultural coming of age and love story. However, I did feel that the plot became a bit convoluted at times. 🤔 What did you think about the pacing and complexity of the story? Would love to hear your thoughts!