This Place Review: A tender lesbian love story that finds the universal in the specific [TIFF]

At the center of "This Place" are Kawenniióhstha (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs) and Malai (Priya Guns), two young women struggling with different complications regarding their fathers. Kawenniióhstha is looking for her father, an Iranian who left his Mohawk mother for reasons she wants to find out. Meanwhile, Malai discovers that her father, an immigrant from Sri Lanka, is sick and probably doesn't have much time left on this earth. Despite the hardships they face individually, they slowly find solace in each other through a chance encounter at the laundromat and a missing notebook.

The scenes the two share together are full of the awkwardness of first love. The way Kawenniióhstha and Malai interact with each other feels authentic in a way that only young lesbians and Sapphic women can truly feel - there's something there that makes you feel like you're falling in love, but it's hampered by the possibility that the woman next to you won't feel the same way. It's a palpable sentiment that carries the rest of the film through effectively, as it helps compensate for the lack of scenes involving real intimacy.