From a new generation of South Asian filmmakers, culturally nuanced stories with universal appeal

During a moment of comedic reprieve in Agam Darshi's family drama Donkeyhead, protagonist Mona — the black sheep of a Canadian Sikh-Punjabi family — is taking her relatives to task. Her siblings have just parachuted back to Regina, where Mona has been the sole caretaker of their father for seven years since a cancer diagnosis. 

Mona's religious aunt insists that the family hold a paath (the Sikh recitation of holy scriptures) for their father, who has recently suffered a stroke: "My brother needs God and prayer."

All of the siblings are on board, but Mona stubbornly yells, "Our father needs peace and quiet."

Darshi, who directed and stars as Mona, told CBC News that she initially envisioned the film without an emphasis on the characters' ethnic and regional background.

"I wanted to showcase a family that felt more North American than they did South Asian. They just happen to be South Asian," Darshi said. "Then the more I started working on it and the deeper I got into this world and these people, it's impossible to divorce where they come from.

"By the time we started shooting, it was very apparent that the cultural aspects were a huge part of this film."

WATCH | Canadian filmmaker Agam Darshi discusses the making of her new film, Donkeyhead:

North American filmmakers like Darshi are centring the experiences of South Asians in their work, tackling universal themes with a cultural specificity that demonstrates the diaspora's diverse nature.

Darshi's Sikh-Punjabi characters differ from the Bengali Hindu family in Sujata Day's Definition Please — each recently released on Netflix Canada — but both films centre on underachieving women tasked with taking care of an ill parent.

"I believe that specificity creates universality," Darshi said.

Her film's title is a common term of endearment used by Punjabi parents in reference to their children. 

"Like, we just see ourselves in other cultures.… If they're honest, then it's like, 'Oh yeah, I get it.' I think that's kind of the beauty of storytelling."

WATCH | The trailer for Agam Darshi's witty family drama Donkeyhead:

The mainstream success of directors Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair and Srinivas Krishna from the 1980s and 2000s paved the way for the current generation of North America South Asian filmmakers like Darshi and Day, according to Arshad Khan, a filmmaker and the festival director for the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival (MISAFF).