Director of Devil’s Hollow Chris Easterly presents his new film, Maison, set in a rural gas station in the south of America. Moussa is trying to get to the airport to fly home to his family, but loses his way. As he heads into the gas station to ask directions, the language barrier between him and the non-French speaking attendant proves to be a challenge. Danny tries to understand what Moussa is saying, finally giving him directions with a map.
Moussa’s troubles are far from over, however, as his car fails to start. It seems he’s doomed never to leave the forecourt. Unable to ask for help, he sits in the car and waits.
At the end of his shift, Danny heads out. He pauses when he sees Moussa sat in his car, but then continues to make his way home. In a twist of fate, Danny has a flat. This issue transcends the language barrier as Moussa is able to offer assistance. Together they fix the flat. Danny manages to understand that “maison” means home, and that just like him, Moussa is trying to get home. In an act of kindness, Danny offers to drive him to the airport to help him on his journey.
Maison is a microcosm reflecting what it means to communicate and relate to others. Just because we can’t understand someone doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to help. I particularly enjoyed the way the film levels the playing field between Danny and Moussa. While the French is subtitled for the average US viewer, Danny’s deep-south dialect is also subtitled. This works to remove a dichotomy that places Moussa in a position of being “foreign” or “other” and Danny as being the “native”, disrupting the narrative of English being a linguistic standard.
While Maison is a simple concept, Easterly executes it brilliantly. In doing so he brings all the crucial elements of storytelling together in less than 10 minutes of footage. Patrick J. Mitchell as Moussa and Lewis Wright Jr. as Danny work well together. Their individual characterisations are important to the success of the narrative, and both actors fulfil their roles impressively.