An aimless girl in her final week of college goes to great lengths to win the affections of a boy from her hometown, Philadelphia, and ends up having to confront anxieties about her love life, family, and future.
A bare-boned independent drama with brief but meaningful touches of gentle comedy, Actual People is a poignant triumph, a simple but effective voyage into the mind of a young woman trying to find herself in a world that has somehow become hostile to those who refuse to find a place within its preconceived standards. As a debut, and a film in general, Zauhar’s work here represents an auspicious start to a very promising career for someone who is likely to become an essential voice in contemporary cinema, if this film is anything to go by.
Kit Zauhar is an Asian-American writer, director, and actress from Philly, currently living in Chinatown, NYC. Her first feature, ACTUAL PEOPLE, premiered at Locarno Film Festival in summer 2021. She makes films about intimacy, loneliness, small victories, and everyday humiliations.