Neil Sedaka once sang that, ‘Breaking up is hard to do.” Against the unsettling, yet cheerful melody, he laments on separating from his partner while pleading with her to stay with him and give it another try. The grounds for their separation are unclear, but his reasons for her to stay with him suggest their love is unbreakable. “Remember when you held me tight? And kissed me all through the night? Think of all we’ve been through”, he reminds her. The lack of mention for their break-up leaves room for philosophical exploration – maybe she didn’t want to? Maybe she still loves him deeply, but feels something is off? Maybe staying with him is equally as good a choice as leaving him? The nuances of a separation from a loved one are often represented through a breakdown of communication, somebody cheats or falls out of love. Rarely do we see a love story where a break-up lacks someone to blame.
Enter Do I Know You From Somewhere? A soulful, genre-bending film that meditates on the discomfort of two people who no longer want the same thing. Written by creative life partners Arianna Martinez and Gordon Mihan, with Lance Kenneth Blakney serving as Director of Photography, together they build a cinematic moodboard of fractured timelines, emotional hauntings and the intangible ache of wanting to be remembered.
At the center of the story are Olive (Caroline Bell) and Benny (Ian Ottis Goff), a couple whose anniversary has been disrupted by unexplained distortions in time. They love each other deeply, but can’t stop the feeling that they are being pulled away from each other. As they come undone by an emerging reality where the two of them do not know one another, they claw to the raw emotions of mutual love, unprepared for the bittersweet future that ensues. For Martinez and Mihan, the concept was rooted in something deeply personal that ushered them into the next phase of their life together. “This isn’t a movie about regret, it’s about the loss of what could have been in exchange for something that is equally as special.” Martinez explains, “The personal aspects in the film come from real conversations that Gordon and I had about wanting kids, and they are hard conversations to have. You can’t help but wonder what happens when your lives don’t align, and if the trade-off is worth it?”
Meditation on love outlasting compatibility is paired with crisp immersion of multiple genres. In the beginning, Olive and Benny feel as if they are experiencing a horror – one minute they are in their kitchen and the next one of them is gone. Benny is pictured with a thousand-yard stare, standing on the beach alone as Olive disassociates between memories.
The first act is a masterclass in keeping the viewer engaged through strong pacing and genuine fear. The sensation of ‘What is happening’ is tied together perfectly by the film’s sound design that creeps in as a memory you didn’t invite. Time moves beneath the surface like the boogeyman; some moments are barely perceptible, while at others, it is clawing its way into the frame. Rather than relying on traditional genre cues, the film uses atmospheric tension to keep the audience emotionally off-balance. By the second act, there is a subtle transition – we are no longer witnessing two people being haunted; instead, we learn we are experiencing their emotional limbo between holding on and letting go. “When you do something like sci-fi, because that is sort of what this film is, you’re able to take these experiences that everyone goes through and play with possibility.” Mihan shares, “What would my life look like if I married someone else? That is the power of genre because you will never know. When you break up with someone, you are losing a big part of your life. It’s fun to take these themes and explore them in a way that is more true to how you would feel.”
What makes the film’s impact so powerful is how every piece of this movie is alive and cannot exist without the other. The visual language works as hard as sound design, script and performance and leaves the viewer needing a moment to stare at a wall to process the journey they went through. Having collaborated for almost a decade, Martinez, Mihan and Blakney move like a well-rehearsed rhythm, deeply attuned to each other’s creative pulse. The team also wore many hats in the making of the film. Mihan and Blakney worked as co-producers and editors on top of their distinct roles; Mihan was also the magic behind sound design, with Blakney on visual effects and Martinez as the film’s director.“That’s the nature of a micro-budget…well, less than that.” Mihan laughs. His humble nature impresses me because a film’s budget isn’t the defining element between great and good; craft is. Before this feature, they made several short films together that allowed them to build their intimate and creative ecosystem. Every aspect of ‘Do I Know You From Somewhere?’ is an expression of skill sharpened by years of growing up and creating together. “It really was a collaborative thing from the beginning, and there was never a question of assembling a team in terms of this core group.” Martinez explains, “We also knew who we wanted for the crew because we are based in New Brunswick and we know who we’ve worked with and enjoyed working with, who share the same values as us and are multitalented.” Bringing on the right team and establishing a harmonious and safe set was a non-negotiable they collectively shared. It was an important aspect of pre-production. “Pre-production and behind-the-scenes were equally important to making this movie successful.” Blakney shares, “The way that we scheduled and ran the set facilitated a happy, healthy set. The location made this possible as well. By having actors who were caring, not just about their performance but also the well-being of their cast and crew members, that all allowed it to infuse into this amazing thing at the end of the day.”
If sound design is the string that pulls the horror that Benny and Olive face together, then the visuals are the sand in the hourglass keeping them on edge and giving the viewers emotional whiplash. The visual tone oscillates between a charming tension and a metaphorically crumbling home. Fluorescent pinks and reds establish the duality of Olive’s skepticism and fear around love while emanating her most desperate desire: to be seen. While the harsh, muted palettes echo the emotional dissonance of a love that refuses to vanish neatly. For Blakney, establishing interconnected languages required deep reflection. “I watched this film get written from the very beginning so I had early insights from a DoP perspective. Understanding that we’d explore these interdimensional relationships allowed me to ask ‘how could I take the audience on this journey in an authentic way’? That didn’t feel like too much exposition.” They reflect, “This film really moves at a breakneck speed, so the scene where they are in the church was a moment of peace. There is a very detailed visual language as we go through the film; the characters, location, temporal interaction all had different ways they were represented. When Benny is in the church, the viewer can sense the distance between him and Olive without an establishing shot because of the depth of the shot. He is slowly moving out of the frame to signify the distance growing.”
At the revelation in the second part of Act II, when we as viewers learn this is a film about a break-up, we are also hit with another twist. It’s not just about the end of something beautiful, but the beginning as well. Ada (Mallory Amirault), the other side of Olive’s love triangle appears on the screen decked out in a 90’s power woman outfit, with flawless, slicked back hair illuminated with those bright pinks and reds that make Olive’s heart pump. She is only on the screen in the third act but her presence establishes her as a fully fleshed out character, something Martinez was cautious about. “The audience is rooting for Benny so I really wanted her to come across as powerful and magnetic so the audience knew who she was.” Michelle Duncan worked as the costume designer on the film and she achieved just that. “I wanted her to be immediately likeable, super charismatic – delightful but a little bit mysterious. I also wanted her sexuality to be ambiguous; is she a dominating woman or is she flagging that she’s queer? I felt she’d read differently if she was in a little dress.”
Olive’s relationship with Ada is drastically different then her dynamic with Benny, but equally good. It’s not hard to understand why, in the end, Olive submitted to her shifting reality. Where Benny is comfort, Ada is warmth that keeps her safe and allows her to connect to her emotional limitations without questioning herself. For Martinez, ultimately her choice is less about who these characters are and more about how different people interact. “Olive approaches Benny, she is the instigator in their meet-cute. Whereas Ada is the one who approaches Olive and she’s sort of taken aback by that but is there for the ride.” She explains. “So we see the power dynamics but also who’s being taken care of. It’s not just that Ada provides a family, it’s that she is also meeting her needs before they are expressed. That is not something a person is able to see until they have those comparisons. I truly believe Olive would have been happy either way but there is something about the invisible needs you can’t see until you are in absence of them.”
‘Do I Know You From Somewhere?’ is a stand-out film and one of the best Canadian productions to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a tender exploration of love’s complexity and how deep affections can persist even when paths diverge. It challenges the idea that endings are the result of loss or betrayal and provides viewers with a different explanation, sometimes relationships run their course but that doesn’t make them any less impactful or important.
In their last moments together, Benny tells Olive he does not want to be forgotten. Through its interwoven timelines, haunting soundscapes and evocative imagery, the film captures those fragile moments where memory, hope and heartbreak coexists, leaving an unforgettable mark on anyone who has ever loved and had to say goodbye.
Features
