Our Kind of Love
2018 · 16m · UK
Directed by Elham Ehsas, Azeem Bhati
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Samira, a recently-arrived Afghan refugee, goes on her first date in London with Harun, a second-generation British-Afghan man, an introduction arranged through traditional channels. Over sushi in an unfamiliar restaurant, their conversation reveals the cultural distance between two people who share a heritage but inhabit very different worlds.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the refugee story to be about trauma and arrival; Ehsas and Bhati throw a sushi menu at that expectation and let the awkwardness speak louder than any monologue ever could. It's the kind of quietly subversive move that makes the whole premise snap into place.
The film's restraint is its argument—these directors understand that cultural distance doesn't need to be dramatized, only observed with formal precision in the specific vocabulary of a first date's silences and small talk.
The choice to set an intimate Afghan-British conversation in a Japanese restaurant is the decision that unlocks everything: suddenly displacement isn't the subject, it's the *air in the room*, and that spatial awkwardness does the narrative work for you.
Reviews
An unassuming hit for its performances and melancholic take on dating in the 21st century.
Packs in a lot of emotional depth for its run time, and is really rather beautiful.
Festivals
- Underwire Short Film Festival 2018
- London Short Film Festival 2019
- BAFTA 2019