Echo (Sasha Merci) wakes up in bed with her ex-lover, Rita (Mimi Davila). Prints and photos from Rita’s work are scattered across the floor as Rita prepares for her upcoming show, Multitudes, I Am, at the Chinolavena Gallery. Echo says she’s done tripping over the images every time she gets up, and Rita, never one for subtlety, goes super-intense and attempts to throw her whole exhibit in the garbage instead.
The two head out for a walk in the park, and it isn’t long before Rita starts needling Echo about getting too friendly with her white coworkers. Back at the apartment, Rita starts getting even more personal with Echo, asking why she’s boxed up all her own art and shoved it into storage, which turns the conversation into a full-on fight — one that leads to an unexpected moment.
“Rita, never one for subtlety, goes super-intense and attempts to throw her whole exhibit in the garbage instead.”
Pangea is an exploration of identity. Writer-director Mimi Davila, half Cuban and half Bulgarian, built the film around her feeling of never fully belonging anywhere and passed this conflict on to her characters. Echo is a light-skinned Afro-Latina who doesn’t feel “Black enough” or “Latina enough” for either box. Rita is a white Latina whose whiteness shifts depending on who’s looking at her — never quite Latina, never quite white. Davila then tells the story of two women carrying the same contradiction: emotions can get messy, and for them, this messiness feels like home.
Pangea is shot beautifully in black and white on grainy film stock, complete with projector scratches baked right in. That cinematic texture fits the story perfectly, because what’s playing out between Echo and Rita is the old adage in action: opposites attract. Their relationship is toxic and highly passionate. The connection is irresistible, but it’s a constant push and pull until one, most likely Echo, gives up.
What keeps you locked in, though, are the performances. As Echo, Merci sells every mood swing without ever tipping over into melodrama, and the story underneath stays poignant even when the two of them are at their messiest. Fantastic performances and a story that actually has something to say — that’s what makes Pangea a winner.
"…Their relationship is toxic and highly passionate."
