The film tells the story of the complicated yet joyous attraction between two women
BY KRYSTA MCKENZIE, IMAGE BY BFI FLARE
Polarized is a love story about two women who form a connection despite their very different backgrounds. Dalia is a Palestinian woman who moves to a small American community with her family, and launches her business (called Agri-Tech) of a vertical farm which grows food organically so that their produce tastes “the way food used to taste”. The local people view Dalia and her family as the enemy, and although this is partially because of losing their natural farms, their hatred is mostly a result of racism.
Lisa grew up in this small community, and has been begrudgingly working at Agri-Tech since losing her farm. After an incident occurs at Agri-Tech, Lisa takes her anger out on Dalia and the argument reveals racist views that Lisa had held, leading to her immediately being fired. This was quite relieving to watch as a Black person, because it is dishearteningly common to see characters on the receiving end of “microagressions” struggle a lot with validating their experience. It felt so good to watch Dalia make a decision without questioning whether or not Lisa’s racist comments were acceptable.
The two reconcile after a sincere apology from Lisa, and they begin to spend more time together understanding each other’s experiences of race, class and religion. It’s not long before they become close, and attraction grows between them — which is complicated for so many different reasons (most leading back to family pressures).
However, although these women certainly face many difficulties in their personal lives, Polarized is not a bleak story at all. The film makes a point to focus on the intimacy and joy that being in love brought them, and it portrays a heartwarming tale of self-acceptance.
Here’s the trailer…
If you’re interested in watching Polarized, you’re in luck because BFI Flare has released additional tickets for the final show. Get yours here!
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