majboor-e-mamool (what will you do when I'm gone?)
2022 · 8m · Canada
Directed by Haaris Qadri
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A first-generation Canadian daughter drives her immigrant mother to a doctor's appointment, forced into the role of caretaker and translator while navigating the guilt and exhaustion of parentification in a diasporic family.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Four locked-down static long takes of parentification — that's a real formal choice for a real subject. Eight minutes, no padding, immigrant-translator-daughter without the usual flute-and-violin treatment.
Four locked-down long takes to render parentification in a diaspora family — Qadri is choosing claustrophobic formal restraint over emotional crescendo, which is the harder and more honest move. Eight minutes, precise frame, considerable promise.
Four locked-down static long takes across 8 minutes is a precise formal trap — the claustrophobia of caretaking rendered as compositional refusal to move. That's the kind of disciplined choice that makes parentification cinema instead of issue-doc.
Reviews
In just four scenes, we follow the mother/daughter duo on their mundane morning and witness the subtle, but permanent effect the relationship has had on Sania.
The bilingual Urdu and English-language film offers a stark portrayal of the relationship between immigrant parents and their children and the feelings of frustration that can accompany familial obligations.
Festivals
- Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2022, Best Canadian Short Film
- TIFF Next Wave Film Festival 2023
- Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) 2023