Indians in Cowtown

This was a pretty good story about siblings going through the inevitable death of a cancerous father. The judgemental attitudes of relatives who are in or have never been in a position to judge anything or anyone is absurd at best. An accurate deduction of gaslighting nobody relatives.

Anyone with an extended family can relate to this story presented so well by the author. It transcends the particular ethnic culture and captures the complexity of life for all families regardless of race, gender, age, achievement or loss. One cannot help but be reminded of similar experiences both good and bad in our own lives. So many faces, places and events flashed back repeatedly during the film I could not help but relate. Congratulations on a such an excellent well crafted story.

Agam Darshi steals the show along with Stephen Lobo, Donkey Head captures the nuances of complicated relationships between 2nd gen south Asian families. A needed insight to the culture displaying imperfection, while interweaving hidden societal expectations usually only reserved to those who are... Indian. I'm addition to a wrenching story, it's a film is not just for white audiences but also shares something familiar and unseen for Indian people. It's a realistic view that doesn't display our people as Bollywood tree going performers and cheesy lovers.

All in all we need more stories like this out there. We need the perspectives of immigrant Canadian families. We need stories with diversity.

The story overall was beautiful. It was heartfelt. The relationship between the siblings was beautiful and fun! For me, despite not understanding a lot about the culture, it was so awesome experiencing these new ideas and traditions.

There were parts that were lacking. Parts where the overall idea was received but the execution was not well done. This was unfortunate as the overall idea was a home run.

The acting overall was good! The acting from the brothers was especially very natural and easy to watch. There were unfortunately some camera angles that were uncomfortable to watch and took me out of the story. That was unfortunate but it was worth getting through.

As "Donkeyhead" (2022 release from Canada; 106 min.) opens, we get to known Mona, a thirty-something woman in Regina, Saskatchewan who is taking care of her ailing dad, and has been for the last 7 years while she is also working on her debut book. When her ailing dad takes a turn for the worst, she calls her 3 other siblings (a sister and two brothers), who soon all are in the family home in Regina...

Couple of comments: this film is nothing short of a labor of love by Agam Darshi, best known for her many roles in a slew of TV shows. Here she not only makes her directing debut, for she also writes, produces and stars as Mona. The movie navigates the tensions that exist between the siblings as well as the fact that they are Sihks from Indian descent. Last but certainly not least, the movie shows a woman who some might describe as a rebel and a free spirt, while others might look at the same person and find her messed up or a failure. It is hard to believe that this is Darshi's directing debut as this film is amazingly pointed, complex and moving on many levels. As an aside, I admit I've never been to Regina but from watching this film, it looks beautiful and depressing at the same time. Last but not least, the production budget for this film was just $2 million, less than a pittance by today's Hollywood standard, but look at the end result and then ask yourself, who delivers more?

"Donkeyhead" premiered this past weekend on Netflix, and after seeing a positive writeup of the film in the New York Times, I couldn't wait to see it. So glad I did. If you are in the mood for a complex, nuanced and moving siblings relationship drama, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.