Seagrass
A tense, atmospheric, and visually compelling drama about breaking intergenerational curses, as a dysfunctional biracial couple goes on a group therapy retreat, only for their fractured marriage to deleteriously affect the young daughters who tagged along.
Director Meredith Hama Brown scheduled to attend.
A biracial family struggling to stay together must battle against the generational trauma that haunts them. Seagrass is an ethereal drama that doesn’t shy away from the complexities of marriage, parenthood, and microaggressions. We meet Judith (Ally Maki) a Japanese Canadian, and her Caucasian husband Steve (Luke Roberts) on an island retreat for couples counseling. With them are their two adolescent children, who must bear witness to the erosion of their family unit whilst dealing with their own identity crisis. A ghostly presence that only the youngest can perceive looms over the fracturing group. A tinge of horror mixes with unease. The mounting tension is brought eerily to life through the film's oscillating score and twisting cinematography. The standout performances being Maki’s portrait of a grief-stricken daughter full of regrets while juggling a deteriorating marriage and motherhood. The realistic sibling dynamic between the two daughters (Nyha Huang Breitkreuz and Remy Marthaller) is a joyful highlight in the face of approaching tragedy.
—Sandra Woolf
- Director: Meredith Hama-Brown
- Principal Cast: Ally Maki, Luke Roberts
- Country: Canada
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 115 min.
- Producer: Sara Blake, Tyler Hagen
- Screenplay: Meredith Hama-Brown
- Cinematographers: Norm Li
- Editors: Shun Ando, Kane Stewart
- Music: Oscar Vargas
- Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2023 (FIPRESCI Prize)
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: English
- US Distributor: Game Theory Films
- International Sales: Game Theory Films