It requires a specific dedication and abdication of self to become a guardian of another person. To that end, the truest lesson I’ve learned as a parent is that it’s not for the weak. In the days where a “village” was available, many hands made light work of parenting; however, in the modern era, the “village” is all but gone, leaving most parents to fend for themselves. With that comes a great deal of guilt, frustration, and bitterness that can be pointed in any direction at any time. Add into that some generational trauma and you’ve got yourselves a veritable powder keg. In their latest project, filmmaking team Artemis Shaw (New Strains) and Prashanth Kamalakanthan (New Strains) delve into all of the above in their dramedy Removal of the Eye, having its world premiere during New Orleans Film Festival 2024.
L-R: Prashanth Kamalakanthan as Ram and Katerina Shaw as Katerina in REMOVAL OF THE EYE., Photo courtesy of Artemis Shaw’s website. Katerina Shaw as
Parents Kallia and Ram (Shaw and Kamalakanthan, respectively) are struggling to find a foothold in their careers as educators and musicians while also balancing their needs as a couple *and* those of their 10-month-old son, Niko (Niko Kamalakanthan), who’s going through a sleep regression. Complicating things further, Kallia’s parents, who live in an apartment below them in the same building, have their own crises as her father (Robert Shaw) ends up in the hospital after a fall and her mother’s (Katerina Shaw) perception of the world worsens. With everyone around them seeming to have an easier time of balancing their lives, a concern over whether their family has been cursed via the evil eye starts as a silly superstition that grows into a larger fear day after day in the mind of Kallia.
Now, to help set expectations here for more sensitive viewers, this dramedy does include a situation in which Niko finds himself in a spot of trouble. But, unlike dark comedy The Coffee Table (2022), which also includes sparring parents and an infant, Niko is going to be ok.
For the uninformed, the evil eye is believed to be a curse bestowed upon someone via the intense glare of another, usually born out of jealousy or envy. Viewed by some as superstition, by others as supernatural in nature, it’s a part of communities throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other places to which families have immigrated. Within Removal, it’s used as a means to differentiate between generations, those who believe in the “old ways” versus the more modern methods for parenting. It’s used for a few other things, including to highlight unresolved tensions between Kallia and Katerina that spill over into Kallia’s choices as a parent. Who is Kallia, if not Katerina’s daughter? Therefore, anything that didn’t work for her, via her own perspective, she will avoid for her child. Niko’s crying? Immediately go to comfort him. Niko’s not sleeping? Give him breast milk, not formula. Niko’s perpetually awake? We must cater to him so as not to instill in him a sense of abandonment. As significant as Niko is as a 10-month-old person, his parents are reacting to him based on their immediate needs and/or what happened to them as children, which can create an opportunity for gross overcorrection. Speaking as a child whose own parents took the “close the door at night and see them in the morning” approach compared to what I and EoM Editor Crystal Davidson do (a more complex process due to recognizing the special needs of our individual children), it’s not that I know better that Kallia or Ram, it’s that it’s easy to recognize from the outside that these are people struggling and its born out of a desire to ensure that Niko doesn’t grow up with the same shortcomings. No single parent has it all figured out, but what we can do is try to ensure that our kids have it better than we did. This is what creates the tension between Kallia and Ram, and Kallia and her mother, as the two couples sort through current and past tensions in order to create an improved future.
There are three key storylines within Removal that function in tandem: Kallia and Ram as people, as parents, and as children themselves. These three storylines intertwine to create a great deal of chaos and, eventually, resolution. As co-writers of the film, Shaw and Kamalakanthan are given equal amount of metaphorical rope to hang themselves as they each grapple with their respective struggles. They’re the kinds of struggles that cause those who’ve been through it to see the humor, to nod sagely, or even scream at the film “you always check the monitor!” when it seems like their characters have dropped the ball. Likewise, the relationship between Kallia and Katrina never feels contrived, the real-world relationship between the two creating a charge and energy that might be missing otherwise. If there’s an issue, it’s that the inclusion of the “evil eye” as threat feels like it should be a bigger deal than it is within the film, especially in its resolution. The film being set in a modern era, that Kallia is seeking to complete either a Master’s or Ph.D. while working in education, and that neither she nor Ram are unintelligent makes it strange that they wouldn’t mention a sleep regression, that Niko’s teeth are coming in, or perhaps even a cognitive leap — three very real things that can impede proper sleep, especially around that age, things that likely would be known, even by first time parents, given what we know about these two and their education. Granted, one can be highly intelligent in one area and absolutely lacking in another, but it seems odd that, even as an aside, these other possibilities are ignored in favor of the evil eye being given so much attention. Of course, this may well be to ensure that the generational conflict is given more time to gestate and come to a head, generating more emotion through the interpersonal conflict than to consider a child’s natural state of development.
L-R: Artemis Shaw as Kallia and Niko Kamalakanthan as Niko in REMOVAL OF THE EYE. Photo courtesy of New Orleans Film Festival.
Look, having two kids doesn’t make anyone an expert and there are things that I know with my second that I didn’t know with my first. But what Shaw and Kamalakanthan absolutely nail, more than anything, is that sense of loss of identity that comes once the “Mom” and/or “Dad” titles are added. We lose ourselves, our dreams, our desires, our autonomy, when we become parents. We give up time, energy, and focus to ensure that this budding lifeform has the best chance it can to grow into the best version of itself. If this means working during the bread crusts of the day, that’s what happens. So, while the whole of Removal of the Eye is a tad rough around the edges, perhaps not entirely satisfying in its conclusion, it is no less on-point in its representation of parenthood and the desire to make things better while not losing one’s self in the process.
Screened during New Orleans Film Festival 2024.
In theaters Spring 2026.
For more information, head to the official New Orleans Film Festival 2024 Removal of the Eye webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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