2023 · drama
Totem
Directed by Sander Burger1h 33m2023
Ama, the daughter of Senegalese asylum seekers, feels completely Dutch. When Ama's mother and brother are arrested, Ama sets off in search of her father through Rotterdam in the middle of winter, hoping to avoid deportation. During this frightening and exciting journey, she discovers her roots, thanks in part to her extraordinary totem animal: a gigantic porcupine.
Our read: Totem (2023) reads as a sombre, measured, grounded drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, tender in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, measured, measured drama, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, tender.
- sombre
- measured
- tender
- intimate
Watching Totem tonight? Spin for your lens.
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How Totem feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want a child's magical journey discovering roots amid family crisis.”
Skip it tonight — You want pure escapism without real-world stakes like deportation.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Totem, with why →
Discussion
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