TIFF 2021: Quickening
TIFF 2021Haya Waseem’s debut feature, Quickening, is an extraordinarily confident telling of a story about a young Pakistani-Canadian woman struggling with identity, relationships, and above all her mental and emotional health. The Quickening’s dissolution of the protagonist’s vitality is an impactful display for sure. That’s one thing, but in addition to a powerful character piece, Waseem presents a visual stunner with an amazingly effective score. The beautiful score, although not ever-present, is strategically used and evokes an almost Taxi Driver sensibility in how it supplements the editing to introduce or punctuate scenes. The cinematography – consistently lush and colorful, despite its small, confined spaces – is also a brilliantly calculated feat with gorgeous framing; sly, probing camera movement; and thoughtful compositions, reminiscent of how the camera moves in something like Magnolia. In short, Waseem knows exactly what she wants as a filmmaker in bringing this story to film.
Sheila, played by Arooj Azeem, finds her world unraveling when her friend, a boy with whom she hooked up, makes it clear that they are not a couple. This devastates Sheila, and what her ‘unravelling’ looks like is a powerful inward gestation of self-doubt and negative self talk. When she thought she was in a relationship, all was well with the world. When that goes away, Quickening digs into Sheila’s need for support and the apparently lonely, closed-off world that she believes she’s in. She feels alone because no one’s psychographics align with hers, yet her feeling alone is purely a psychological construct. With the background of an upper-middle-class, immigrant family, Sheila’s demographics match several groups, and she even has a close friend. You’d think she’d be able to identify and potentially find comfort with someone. However, she ultimately connects with none and ends up spiralling into grief, despair, and the negative thinking that goes with them. The dynamics of community and how one identifies – everyone needs that peer group – make for a strong thematic environment to explore the fragility of mental wellness. However, none of Sheila’s family, Pakistani acquaintances, Canadian friends, or classmates shares enough in common for her to have an outlet.
Sheila’s world is built around a series of rejections. Firstly, of course, is the spurning by her supposed boyfriend, but the ongoing steady accumulation of rejection – her little brother won’t listen to her regarding simple requests, her teacher complains of her efforts in class – pushes down on her self-esteem with an extra weight that probably validates her depression. Waseem seems also to be making cultural comments about Pakistani women living in a culture of rejection and one ripe for mental health issues. Sheila’s mom gets a lot of mini-rejections daily, too. Her Pakistani friends talk of waiting out their boyfriend’s evaluation of arranged-marriage candidates from his parents. Not only is the man rejecting other women, the whole process is a bit of a rejection of to Sheila’s friend. These are passing moments, but it’s smart writing. These little patches add up to form a tapestry of a cultural setting which incite demotivation and unhappiness. Quickening’s carefully framed close-ups and cramped compositions only close in further on Sheila’s ability to easily breathe.
Quickening is an extraordinary film. It’s a small micro-budget affair and a singular character study, but it feels much larger. One hopes this is a gateway to many future projects for Haya Waseem. Her direction injects colour, moodiness, and definitive cinematic style into a small, claustrophobic drama about coming-of-age loneliness.