Next of Kin: Writing Undeniable Empathy

Written by Sofi Abouassali

Next of Kin (1984) as Atom Egoyan’s debut feature accomplishes an impressive feat within the short runtime of seventy minutes. The 1984 film is an excellent example of using emotion to transcend boundaries in terms of empathy. Egoyan’s writing allows audience members to understand the characters beyond just responding to the characters’ words and actions. Using storytelling techniques and focusing on the characters’ psychology allows for a deep understanding of a family dealing with a generational and cultural pull between parent and child. This allows for a rich and deep understanding of the first-generation experience.

The Use of Narration

The film’s protagonist, Peter Foster, narrates in first person through the course of the film, offering backstory insight and using audiotapes as a tool for narrating his thoughts. This narrative style offers the audience insight into the character Peter’s psychology. In addition, Peter actively narrates what he finds in the psychology of his surrounding characters. Peter’s self-proclaimed problem is that he likes to pretend, stating part of himself is the actor while the other part is the audience. This makes Peter a malleable character who can conform to whatever situation Egoyan puts the character in, creating an excellent tool for the audience to gain information. He often takes in his surroundings and contemplates questions that the audience ponders. He is able to “perform” in whichever scenario he needs to. Peter envies therapists; he wants the opportunity to explore what he finds intriguing- other families’ problems. At the beginning of the film, Peter states, “What can be more exciting than getting to know another family, trying to solve their problems. What can be more satisfying than giving direction to their life?” (7:44) He decides to watch the tape of another family’s therapy session in this desire. The tape he chooses is of an Armenian Canadian family with a ghost-child son, the same age as Peter. Peter takes this opportunity to pretend to be the missing child, Bedros, to resolve familial tension. His decision to “perform” as Bedros gives the audience a chance to witness firsthand what goes on inside the family. Peter’s relationship with each family member also allows the audience to see different sides to the same characters. Rather than morally good or bad characters, each character has flaws, but Egoyan explores the reason behind these character flaws. He writes to explore how the seeds of how the characters’ beliefs and actions have been planted and grown.

Storytelling Style

Egoyan does this type of storytelling based on emotion and understanding in a very effective way. This is because the empathetic film is persuasive at its very core. The audience must be persuaded to view the story world to align with the characters to believe their actions are justified. The audience viewing the story world through Peter’s eyes gives exploration to the characters George and Azah. They both justify the viewpoint of their shared relationship to Peter, allowing the audience to understand how these characters are layered. Beyond this style choice, the written dialogue between characters is primarily based on their feelings.

An example of this is in an interaction between Peter and Azah when he tells her to think of agreeing with George as acting. Azah states, “I would feel terrible.” Peter responds by saying, “Not if you realize why you are doing it… to show you love him.” (43:50) This emphasis on emotion achieves audience members who do not identify with the scenario to understand the characters beyond differences. Cultural differences are explored, but not in a way that flattens the character as commonly seen in mainstream media. Instead, Egoyan treats these as an added layer to an already complex human nature- giving just representation to minority characters not usually found in mainstream entertainment.

Egoyan and the Audience, Students of Human Nature

Emotion- the core string that runs through all of humanity, the one thing the entire population has in common; how does that make you feel? This film is used as a vehicle for both the characters and the audience to explore how they feel. Further, the film also explores how these feelings become translated into actions and how actions are interpreted and felt by other characters. Within George and Azah’s relationship, Peter finds that George acts the way he does out of care for Azah, but Azah believes this is ridicule because of how George acts on his emotions—causing Azah, in turn, to act in a way that hurts George as well. Egoyan’s writing promotes a type of self and universal understanding. George and Azah act as mirrors to one another, often resulting in conflict and repellence. Both are rather progressive for their described home environment, but their most significant blockage is their greatest commonality- their pride. This pride must be understood and overcome in order to achieve a sense of harmony amongst the characters. Peter continues to explore his own mental and emotional fabrication, gaining insight from the family’s experiences. While Peter states the family is different from what he is used to, once he pokes and prods inside each character’s mind, he can understand beyond his own experience of “normal.”

Conclusion

Next of Kin is an emotionally evocative script that encompasses the characters’ mental, emotional, and psychological progression within the story. Egoyan does not write a screenplay that satisfies an audience thirsting for brash action and climax; rather, he writes for an audience that is ready to engage with him on a journey to understanding the most complicated and self-contradicting thing on the planet- human beings. Admittedly, a much more daunting and difficult task, but one that he achieves with grace.

Works Cited

Egoyan, Atom, director. Next of Kin. YouTube, Ego Film Art Production, 1984, Film.