| Maya & Samar is a Canadian-Greek movie telling the tale of a Canadian journalist and an Afghan stripper. Maya (Nicolette Pearse), is a young sex-positive journalist from Toronto. Her pieces tend to center around women and social causes, and she lives her life very in the moment, whatever drug or party she fancies at the time. She’s supposed to be on vacation, even hangs up on her boss since she intends to not work, but her work finds a way to always be involved. | | 2025
Directed by: Anita Doron
Screenplay by: Tamara Berger
Starring: Nicolette Pearse, Amanda Babaei Vieira
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Set in Greece, Maya is on vacation visiting her friend Rebecca, a former Canadian journalist who now plays the role of wife and expectant mother in Athens. You can tell how Maya and Rebecca used to be best friends formerly joined at the hip but their lives have gone in complete opposite directions and now, not so much the distance but the differences, has started to fray their relationship. With Rebecca not feeling well due to the pregnancy, Maya goes off to a party with a similarly-motivated neighbour (sex and drugs = good; marriage and baby = boring).
The audience for this movie will likely skew young. Stylistically it’s basically indie grit meets techno rave. The score borrows heavily from EDM, not surprising given the many underground party scenes. Partially filmed on location in Athens, the film also manages to strike that relaxed vacation vibe with the reality of the downtown core of a metropolitan city.
It’s at the party that she meets Samar. A queer woman from Afghanistan who absolutely mesmerizes Maya. A young, hot woman so confident in her sexuality but comes from a culture where none of that is possible. Maya is curious, smitten and in love. The next day she wants to see more of Samar, but everyone is advising her not to. Rebecca knows Maya and knows this will turn into a story, not just a fling, and nothing good can came of that.
There is a scene where Rebecca warns Maya about the dangers of a potential story, and says to Maya, (paraphrasing) “remember when our professor warned us about how when stories that cross cultural boundaries may have different consequences because of the different cultures?” Maya responds, “I remember, I also remember when he was dick-deep in my ass. Do you remember that? No, just me?”. That shut Rebecca up. While I kind of wish that was explored a whole lot more, that one exchange gives so much insight into Maya and Rebecca. It also illustrates how much more open the younger generation is with sexual abuse. Past generations hid it allowing it keep occurring, but bringing it up like Maya did takes away its power.
Maya and Samar’s sizzling love affair is most of the movie. A lot of sex and a lot of nudity. (The NC-17 rating in the US is not surprising since gay sex scenes always get more harshly rated than straight ones.) On the surface, Maya and Samar’s relationship could be a vacation fling, a one-week long flurry of hot sex and brief emotions; technically, that’s all it is. But Maya’s job and Samar’s history is always right there beneath the surface waiting to arise.
Maya threatening to turn Samar into a story instead of a girlfriend is when the movie gets good. Unfortunately, it leaves that all until the end. The final act of the movie is jam-packed with plot complications both interesting and theatrical. I understand the filmmaker’s desire to focus on the sex since this type of story never gets the big screen treatment, but it’s not as interesting as the story that comes after the sex.
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