From Omeleto.
A mother steals supplies.
KIN is used with permission from James Waterhouse. Learn more at https://www.jameswaterhouse.film.
The world had disintegrated into a lawless dystopia, with the land ravaged and overrun by murderous thugs. Amid the chaos, a mother lovingly cares for her baby in the dilapidated trailer they call home.
But as they run out of water, food and other crucial items, the mother must head out into the larger world to refill their supply. As she tries to scavenge items she needs, she comes up against threat after threat in a world riven with chaos and desolation.
Directed and written by James Waterhouse, this taut short action-thriller is pared down to the most crucial elements of its genre: a strong lead character with a compelling need, propulsive and dynamic craftsmanship that deftly controls the build-up of tension and suspense, and then a ferocious climax that feels as visceral and brutal for us as it does for the mother. The result is a gripping experience with a compelling immediacy, one that propels us into an intriguing, menacing world.
With little dialogue, the stripped-down storytelling leans on dynamic, propulsive visuals and evocative production design to establish a desolate world full of strife and danger. The emptiness of the countryside, the bodies and junk strewn about, the dilapidation of the trailer where the mother and baby live: it all speaks to a world where civilization no longer exists. That anarchy is what the mother must reckon with as she provides for her baby, and she meets plenty of threats as she tries to forage and then make her way back to her baby.
Actor Lauren Okadigbo as the mother has little dialogue to work with, but what she does have is an expressive face and powerful control of her movement and body. From the way she strides to the way she punches, hits and stabs, she’s uncommonly strong and fierce. But what’s most effective about her performance is how all that strength and ferocity is funneled towards the care and protection of her child. In that way, she taps into a primal dimension of being a mother — a lioness with the power to provide and keep her baby safe.
That power is tested as the mother faces one threat after another, packing KIN with enough action and thrills that belie its relatively short runtime. Designed as part of a larger story, it sets up a fascinatingly sinister, raw world and an audacious take on the maternal archetype, and then it deploys the muscle of its considerable craft and camerawork to pull us through an adventure — teasing just enough to leave viewers wanting more.
