Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan’s 2023 no-budget feature New Strains was one of the few films interested in documenting the psychological reality of living through COVID lockdowns, while also finding room to indulge in all manner of comedic hijinks and even quasi-sci-fi absurdity. Starring fictionalized versions of the filmmakers themselves, aspiring rapper Ram (Kamalakanthan) and grad student Kalia (Shaw) find that living together in a small space isn’t quite so easy, and the ensuing film pokes fun at their own artistic pretensions, hyper-educated milieu, and financial struggles in a heady mix of pseudo-reality-cum-docu-fiction. Ram and Kalia are now back in a sorta-kinda sequel called Removal of the Eye, their characters now the proud parents of 10-month-old Niko. They also now live in the same building as Kalia’s parents (played by Shaw’s real-life parents, Robert & Katerina Shaw). What follows is a frequently hilarious, formally audacious, and ultimately moving account of what it means to struggle with artistic practice while also parenting and dealing with a parent’s failing health.
As the film begins, Niko has entered a sleep regression stage and is slowly but surely driving his parents insane. Kalia takes on the bulk of the parenting duties, insisting on breast milk only, and grows increasingly frustrated at Ram’s seeming indifference to her struggles. For his part, Ram is desperate to create again, turning their closet into a makeshift recording studio (the cramped space with glowing neon lights emanating from between hanging clothes is a fantastic recurring sight gag). Frequent visits to her parents’ unit only add to their mounting problems; Katerina needs constant supervision, as seemingly everyday tasks are now almost entirely beyond her ability to perform. Robert does what he can, but an accident sends him to the hospital for a week, the job of watching Katerina now another burden on Kalia. Resentments begin to fester; Ram just wants a few hours to himself, but is so blinkered that he can’t see that Kalia needs time, too. Such is the reality of parenting, and Removal of the Eye is unblinking in its authentic portrait of sleep deprivation and partners butting up against each other’s needs. Eventually, Katerina declares that the entire family has been cursed, and that she must perform a ritual of sorts to “remove” this evil eye that has descended upon them.
Kamalakanthan is credited as cinematographer and editor on the duo’s films, but it’s clear that Shaw has plenty of input on much of the footage here. The ramshackle formalism is fascinating, with wobbly handheld camerawork that frequently invokes the aesthetics of the home movie occasionally giving way to more studied compositions and brief montages of religious iconography. They also employ an extreme fish eye lens as a sort of POV for young Niko, and even briefly utilize an ostentatious 360° camera rig. It’s a totally ramshackle, homemade production, a true family affair, which makes it all the more remarkable when powerful moments of genuine pathos sneak up on the audience. This is the sort of indie filmmaking that doesn’t care about rules, or decorum, or trends. Removal of the Eye is too stylized to be post-post-Mumblecore, and isn’t interested in Dimes Square cultural posturing. It’s a weird, personal undertaking, somewhat akin to Joanna Arnow’s work (minus the emphasis on sexual neurosis). The intermingling of the real — this is an actual family, the photos and living spaces and home videos we see being actual documents of their history — with a fictional story creates a fascinating tension, with the more ostentatious comedic bits sitting side by side with real fears and anxieties. It all adds up to a wonderful film, one that offers an unflinching portrait of raising a family in the 21st century.
DIRECTOR: Prashanth Kamalakanthan & Artemis Shaw; CAST: Prashanth Kamalakanthan, Artemis Shaw, Niko Foster, Tayarisha Poe; DISTRIBUTOR: The Film Collaborative; IN THEATERS: February 6; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 33 min.
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