SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 REVIEW! Ultimately, it’s human nature to want to be home no matter how you define it. In her short film, Close Ties to Home Country, filmmaker Akanksha Cruczynski tells her personal story of missing home and family.
Akanksha stars as herself, a millennial immigrant from India… by way of Saudi Arabia… going to college in the States and dogsitting for the wealthy to earn some cash. Her newest client is an Instagram influencer, India (Cassie Kramer), and her husband, Harry (Simon Hedger). Harry is taking India to India because her name is India, though Akanksha hasn’t been back to her home country in over a decade. The couple needs Akanksha to watch their precious child/dog Timothee and hopefully impart on him some of the cultural experiences of India he’ll be missing.
“…needs Akanksha to watch their precious child/dog…and hopefully impart…some of the cultural experiences of India he’ll be missing.”
As India and Harry indirectly remind Akanksha about how much she misses India and her family, her sister is preparing to visit the States. She is just waiting for her visa to be approved. So when Akanksha invites her friend over to hang out at India and Harry’s apartment, she is given a moment to unload her most significant burden, the loneliness she feels living away from her family, her “home,” to be in America.
Creators need to create. And by create, I mean to express oneself, and that’s precisely what Cruczynski does in Close Ties to Home Country. Her short film opens by poking light fun at the vapid “influencer” couple, who fakes empathy for Akanksha. She then brilliantly lays out several humorous beats preparing us to the point where her feelings must be shared… serving her heart on an emotional platter.
Close Ties to Home Country screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
"…brilliantly lays out several humorous beats..."
