Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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“Souvenir” Film Details
- Director(s): Renée Marie Petropoulos
- Writer(s): Renée Marie Petropoulos
- Based On Work By: Renée Marie Petropoulos, Yingna Lu
- Runtime: 0 Hour(s) and 14 Minutes
- Public Release Date (Press Screening or Screener)
- Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Young Adult, LGBT+
- Content Rating: Not Rated
- Primary Language: English | Non-English (French)
- Images © of / Courtesy Of London Flair PR
Movie Summary
Keira invites her girlfriend/best friend Zoe on vacation. But things go from fun to uncomfortable after Zoe crosses a line and tests Keira’s trust.
Cast and Characters
Keira (Tanzyn Crawford)
- Character Summary: Keira is young, in some form of love, but also not out. She knows her family won’t disown her, but coming out is so old-fashioned that she’d rather just focus on Zoe. At least until Zoe does something that can steal Keira’s narrative.
Zoe (Emily Grant)
- Character Summary: Zoe is Keira’s girlfriend, who isn’t a secret, but isn’t someone she parades around with, yelling “SHE’S MY GIRLFRIEND” with either. They are open but not loud – though they do get intimate in public spaces.
Review and Commentary
Highlight(s)
Trust In WLW Relationships [82/100]
Souvenir is part of the new wave of queer films that want to thoroughly push beyond coming out. There are other areas and topics to explore, and for women, it could be suggested that they don’t get as many opportunities as men to explore their unique dynamics when in lesbian relationships.
Zoe and Keira make for the perfect example. From what it seems, they aren’t hiding who they are, and are intimate in private and public spaces. Keira’s mom may not know the full story, but she makes it clear she has no issues with whatever the two girls might be doing. Yet, a moment between Keira and Zoe sows distrust. It even presents Keira as fearful of what Zoe could do.
This creates the type of mystery that can be seen in a few different ways. One being, it is a mystery created due to this being a short, so you don’t get all the details you want. However, there is also the angle of you not knowing Keira’s past. What has she gone through in relationships? At the same time, what about Zoe? Who was she before Keira, and while cute together, are there things beneath the surface that the short didn’t have time to make clear?
So many questions come up as Souvenir reaches its conclusion, and it isn’t just whether Zoe and Keira will remain together once the vacation ends. A bigger question lingers around Keira’s fear: is it rooted in distrust of Zoe, or in what exposure could mean for her and the control she has over her own narrative?
Overall
Our Rating (82/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)
Souvenir, in how it presents consent, vulnerability, and even fear, acknowledges that some things in relationships are universal. However, there are still perspectives left to explore, and with Souvenir comes a reminder not just of the lack of representation, but of why that representation matters.
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