PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The Ekarta Collective’s 2022 film A Place of Our Own is a thoughtful and at times emotional and touching deep dive into the lives and struggles faced by Bhopal, India’s LGBTQ+ community. This film is significant in the fact that it is crewed, and acted by people within the communities it is portraying, making for an authentic representation. Following Laila (Manisha Soni) and Roshni (Muskaan), 2 trans women who are suddenly evicted from their home, the story follows them as they attempt to nail down a new residence and carve out their own space in a society that clearly expresses contempt for them.
The film is a thoughtful analysis of the slice-of-life reality of what it means to live as a marginalized person. Both women experience strife, hardship, and violence at various points in their search for a home, but they also encounter love, joy, and acceptance as well, from inside and outside their community.
The film is careful not to dwell on the misery and hardship that many other films about the lives of marginalized people seemingly tend to focus on. While they do experience several setbacks and outright traumatic run-ins, such as micro-aggressions and outright violence for their very identities, it does not define their story, and they manage to celebrate the love and affection they experience around them.
The two first-time actors playing the roommates, Manisha Soni and Muskaan expertly bring the struggles and joys of Laila and Roshni to life. Being trans women themselves, they manage to pull their own experiences into what is an engaging journey of finding where one belongs.
A Place of Our Own is a thoughtful and loving tribute to the shared life experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically in India. An acknowledgment that although the reality of living as a marginalized person may be hard, it is also quite empowering and unique. An identity one would not change for the world.
A Place Of Our Own is in select theaters on January 12, 2024, and hits digital platforms on January 16th.
