Transit, Longing and Past Lives
There is a pivotal scene in Past Lives - when the couple is going through immigration at the Toronto airport. It seems like nothing at first - yet in hindsight holds so much meaning. It struck me as I was transiting through an airport myself. Airports make me feel very comfortable - as someone with deep and yet distant roots, no real home and yet a constant sense of seeking one, I feel at home in airports. Barring a few travel influencers, this is where people let their guard down the most. Yes of course there is signaling with the limited edition Rimowa bags and Airpod Maxes - but this is where people are the closest to their true selves. This is the last public place we have left which is not a stage - it’s the space in between stages. And that’s where the scene holds so much importance.
Leaving home for most immigrants is not a choice - sometimes it is the only thing they can do if they want to pursue their dreams and ambitions. As we see with Greta Lee's character. But it comes at a cost - the cost of a lost identity, the cost of being an outsider all your life no matter how many mannerisms and accolades you pick up, and the cost of longing for the past - knowing very well the bridge once crossed, can’t be crossed back. We can look at it, go across it a few times - but we always have to take it back to where we - don’t belong.
The life of an immigrant is often filled with a lot of what ifs. What if I had not left, what if I go back, what if I call a lover from my past life - the story deals with the last one. While it does zoom into the intricacies of a very particular story, the silence it holds in some scenes makes us meditate on the what ifs of our lives. All lives within them contain the lives unlived - and this searing meditation on the longing for past lives makes you wonder about your unlived lives. In doing so it asks a very poignant question - can we ever really belong to the places we seek and the people we meet, after we have left the ones we were born into. Can we truly build our lives after denying the one fate handed us. That’s for you to think about - when you go watch the movie. Which you absolutely must.