Desperate to sell her childhood home, Nikita, a queer South Asian woman, finally discovers what’s making the house unsellable: the ghost of her deeply religious mother. Only newly deceased but from time immemorial disparaging of her daughter’s sexuality, her mother is now stuck en route to eternal bliss, and only Nikita can help her get to Heaven. But will she?
Sakina Jaffrey (Snowpiercer, House of Cards) relishes in the role of Philomena, embodying with gusto an obstinate, flawed mother stuck in liminal limbo. Directed by J. Mehr Kaur, this supernatural dark comedy delivers a heartfelt story about familial trauma, religious dissonance, and how some conflicts can only be settled in the afterlife.
J. Mehr Kaur
J. Mehr Kaur is a film and theatre-maker who tells stories that mythicize the lives of ordinary people. She is the creator and director of the internationally touring Kultar’s Mime, which explores the power of art in the wake of genocide, and associate producer on West End-bound Māyā, for which she also directed Los Angeles and New York City developmental workshops. Mehr has worked in content development at Amazon and Netflix, and is currently the assistant to Craig Mazin on The Last of Us. She attended the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Smith College.
