A few months before Shiva Baby premiered at SXSW 2020 and led to a breakout for star Rachel Sennott upon its TIFF screenings and subsequent 2021 release, another project starring the actress premiered at Slamdance Film Festival and is finally getting a release this summer. Olivia Peace’s Tahara follows Sennott and Madeline Grey DeFreece’s characters as friends who discover they may have a stronger desire for each other after a kiss while at a classmate’s funeral. Shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio by cinematographer Tehillah de Castro, the Rochester, NY-set drama will now arrive on June 10 and the first trailer has landed.
Jared Mobarak said in his review, “That Peace and Zeidman can take this funny, catty, high school comedy of immature kids and transform it into a weighty drama with authentic consequences is no small feat. And they do it both through their characters (DeFreece and Sennott play their roles to perfection) and an experimental visual aesthetic that all but makes the evident wrestling match between religious repression and sexual freedom into a character itself. The majority of the film is claustrophobically squared except when fantasy and reality stirs emotions to expand the frame via colorful rotoscoping and Claymation maquettes. We see what they feel and too often ignore and hope that Carrie will realize her desires are pure. It’s the others’ deception that’s not since honesty isn’t a game. You reap what you sow.”
See the trailer below.
Tahara opens on June 10 and will expand.