Starring Nargis Ahmad, Asha Jibril. Written and directed by Helene
Klodawksy. (PG) 88 min. Opens June 20. See interview at
eyeweekly.com/film.
The press notes for Family Motel classify it as an “alternative drama,” and certainly, Montreal-based filmmaker Helene Klodawsky’s film provides an alternative to the escapist fare cluttering summer multiplexes. But the designation actually refers to the line-blurring techniques (including authentic locations, improvised dialogue and non-professional actors) used to tell this story of a Somali family trying to survive over a difficult summer in our nation’s capital.
Ayan (Nargis Ahmad) works two jobs as a cleaner and makes just enough to support her two school-age girls. Unfortunately, she’s also sending money home to her husband and sons, who hope to follow her to Canada. Rendered temporarily skint, Ayan is evicted from her apartment and forced to live in a dilapidated motel while the city struggles with a housing shortage —?exacerbating the tension between her and older daughter Nasrah (Asha Jibril, Ahmad’s daughter), who longs for a sense of normalcy.
Long-time documentarian Klodawsky doesn’t belabour the out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire nature of her characters’ plight, allowing the basic irony of the situation — Ottawa proving itself slightly less hospitable than war-torn East Africa — to assert itself dramatically, rather than didactically. There are moments where, for all the built-in spontaneity of the production, we feel the filmmaker’s hand guiding the action, but for the most part, Family Motel radiates with credibility and empathy: qualities that are in short supply in the middle of check-your-brain-at-the-theatre-door season.