Cousins is a delightful look at finding your own identity and being able to express that within your own culture. Karina Dandashi’s short is an impressive watch as she continues her upward trend as a filmmaker.
Two cousins born in separate countries reunite in Brooklyn when a run-in with an ex turns the night into a mission of revenge.
A palpable awkwardness to the opening section of Cousins evolves throughout its runtime. First, we meet Layla in a frustrating position in her life. Recently broken up, she has to deal with her ex-girlfriend’s stuff still lying around her apartment. Add to this a meet-up with her visiting cousin Tarek and her evidenced lack of enthusiasm can be summed up with a simple thumbs-up emoji.
Karina Dandashi’s Cousins is a great look at the struggles of a woman opening herself up to her family about her bisexuality. Add the cultural reasons for Layla hiding her sexuality from her family; you have a much more layered and nuanced story. She is hiding her true identity, and if it wasn’t for the nightmarish position she finds herself in at that bar in Brooklyn, then who knows when her truth would be revealed to at least one member of her family.
When Clair does make an appearance, we are given the most awkward of scenes that we must fight through as Clair and Layla try to one-up one another. As excruciating as this is, Cousins shines when we focus on just Tarek and Layla. Tarek sensing that Layla has a heavy load to get off her chest, offers his own confession, thus enabling a connection that will live long in their memories. Karina Dandashi’s Ribal Rayess’ chemistry is gold here, as the duo bounce off one another excellently.
In a film that only runs for just over 12 minutes, we learn so much about our characters that while the ending is perfect for this story, you are disappointed that we only get this brief glimpse into both cousins’ lives. Dandashi’s writing of her story and characters is so strong that this capsule of time is not enough, yet somehow you are perfectly fine with how the story finishes.
By the time we get to the last scene, not only are our shoulders as relaxed as Layla’s, but we have a smile on our faces. Layla has found an ally to help her through this moment in her life and, hopefully, the confidence to get past Clair. Cousins is the perfect type of short, willing to challenge but not afraid to give the audience what they need. Dandashi continues to strengthen her short film catalogue after the excellent Dress Up (check out below). She is an obvious talent in front and behind the camera and one that we should keep an eye out on.
★★★★
Support Us
I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well enough to where any website fees are less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…
Buy Us A Coffee
Our other method if through the wonderful Buy us a Coffee feature, but seeing as we are not the biggest fans of coffee, a pizza will do! We keep it fairly small change on that as well and it allows you to give just a one off payment, so no need to worry about that monthly malarky! We even have a little icon on the website for you to find it and help us out with the running of the website.
Patreon
You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask much from you, so for now we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will of course grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.
Social Media
You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook by giving us a follow and a like. Every one helps!
