Ayar (2021)

Covid-19 and the resulting pandemic have left pretty much everyone on the damn planet feeling like they are in a fever dream at times! Disjointed, longing for loved ones both near and far, and like you're stuck in a house of mirrors inside your own head at times, so why not a low budget indie and often times super meta tale like Ayar (2021)?  On it's very surface, the story follows Ayar (Ariana Ron Pedrique), a beautiful first generation immigrant to America, who is struggling to make it.  When Ayar wishes to return home to be reunited with her the daughter that she misses dearly, she hits a wall with Covid restrictions.  The restrictions are coming from her own mother though, who is refusing to let Ayar see her own daughter after taking care of her granddaughter during the pandemic and doesn't want to risk infecting them with her recently traveled daughter.  So Ayar is forced to confront her own past and experiences, all while the film twists and turns in a meta way, acknowledging itself, the audience, the plot twists, the sugary sweet nature of the mother daughter relationships, all while crashing down narrative and breaking the fourth wall time and time again!  It's borderline nightmare fuel at times, while also being a touching a mother/daughter tale, and Grandma Renata (Vilma Vega) spends a bit of time in her undies and lead actress Ariana Ron Pedrique also has some skin-tilatting moments, both in the "documentary" style portion of the flick, with actual footage of her earlier modeling work, as well as the narrative format of her in her undies!