Olivia Peace’s TAHARA at Women Texas Film Festival review; all the tools to deliver a funny, but personal and touching film

Tahara, for which Olivia Peace won the Women Texas Film Festival’s Leader Award (for Best Director) is exactly what you want from a first-time feature filmmaker.

Whether the film is truly deeply personal to Peace or not, it certainly feels that way when watching the story unfold.

She’s honing in on a very specific experience in a very particular part of the world: a relatively well-to-do Jewish enclave in Rochester, NY, more specifically, a Hebrew school where teenage girls are commiserating in the aftermath of a classmate suddenly committing suicide.

Olivia Peace’s TAHARA Brings Characters with Depth

Best friends Carrie and Hannah aren’t sure what to make of their feelings on the matter or, as we find out, their feelings for each other. 

Tahara is about the ways in which young people deal with distant grief, as well as a queer coming-of-age tale. Samantha, the girl on everyone’s tongue, was an outcast, and we soon learn she was apparently a queer girl with a crush on Hannah.

This revelation has a ripple effect, affecting how these two young women view one another.

Despite typical adolescent provocations that suggest Hannah could be secretly gay herself, she’s resolutely interested in men, especially her tall, dark, and handsome classmate Tristan. She’s a self-centered if relatable character with a single-minded focus on hooking up with this boy-next-door.

Carrie, on the other hand, is a closeted lesbian with budding romantic feelings for Hannah. She simultaneously can’t stand her and finds herself drawn to her. They’ve been friends for years, and this tragic incident draws out some of the personality conflicts that have been simmering between them for some time, we gather. 

This is a film whose intentions are unspoken more than spoken, with Peace showing and evoking instead of telling. She’s woven into the narrative a rich subtext about the pressures associated with coming out while living in an insular and intensely religious environment.

Carrie is either pretending to be straight or hasn’t yet fully discovered her sexuality, as noted by Hannah when she mentions Carrie’s very male date to an upcoming dance. She’s clearly repressing much about herself, as evidenced by her passive-aggressive reactions to Hannah’s behavior. Carrie continually has trouble relating to her friend’s boy-crazy aspirations and even acts out against Hannah at one point by sitting elsewhere in their “Teen Talk-Back” session and buddying up with a rival, wealthier classmate.

Themes exploring social status and sexuality are more overt, while the occasional religious undertones are kept at a low hum. Peace purposely avoids using a megaphone to make her point. She’s more interested in these characters’ internal and external lives and Tahara is a better film for it. 

Madeline Grey DeFreece performs ably as Carrie. From a bevy of furtive glances to a troubled posture, DeFreece brings a slightly brooding melancholy to the character that isn’t likely on the page. She’s a sad young person pretending to be “normal,” and Madeline ensures that no audience will forget or fail to realize what’s happening under her soft-spoken exterior.

On the flip side, it’s clear to us that Hannah is the same, only her insecurity manifests differently, more selfishly.

Rachel Sennott is the star of the movie and proves she may have a bright career ahead of her, able to so easily segue from narcissism to the sympathetic social tics of a lost teenager. She imbues Hannah with enough empathy and recognizable quality to avoid audience fatigue with the character’s often insufferable behavior. We somehow like her and almost root for her in spite of her many flaws. 

Utilizing stop-motion animation at pivotal moments, Olivia Peace’s inter-disciplinary talents are on full display. She uses artwork to convey the dramatic, often illusory feelings of late-stage adolescence. Along with nimble writing by Jess Zeidman and some astute observations, these moments lend credence to Olivia Peace as a promising filmmaker to watch, should she continue down that path. 

Olivia Peace’s TAHARA at Women Texas Film Festival review; all the tools to deliver a funny, but personal and touching film