Where Are You Really From?
It’s a long climb to the top of the stairs at prestigious London banking institution Royal Commonwealth, but “Harold” has made it, sitting on the panel with other members of the board as they interview for a new financial officer, the applicants highly qualified, experienced and well prepared, but singularly unable to meet the particular unspoken standard expected by the senior executive.
Moving from India to Britain when he was a child, “Harold” has managed to pass among his colleagues, accepted and embraced for his positive attitude and ability until he suffers a stroke in the language centre of his brain; recovering swiftly, he returns to work, but his voice and diction have changed, making it apparent that in fact Hari Prasad Tiwari is in fact “the other” in their midst, and worse, seeking something to latch onto he adopts the accents of those around him.
A short film written and directed by Keshav Shree who also stars, Where Are You Really From? is a comedy of compromised manners, Hari a confident man who has overcome the perceptions of others to rise to the top without being curtailed by the silent prejudices of those around him, conditioned by immersion and habit to assimilate their behaviours and cultural identities, the price of standing out as different, a dirty foreigner seeking to infiltrate the establishment, made clear to him since school.
Perhaps wary of challenging those above him lest he draw attention to his own concealed otherness, even unconsciously, with his brain injury removing the filters that have masked his true self Hari flounders, presumed to be mocking others, trying to be something he isn’t, even though he is now in some ways more honestly himself, even his family confused, the lingering question becoming whether he can adjust to this reframing of his life, even use it to give others a foot up.
Where Are You Really From? is currently playing the festival circuit
