Kinks

2011 • 86 minutes

About this movie

Kinks is a mockumentary style feature film. The movie takes a cynical but nevertheless humorous look at two inter-racial twin sisters who appear far from alike. Inside and outside. One is white and one is dark.

Split up as children, because their parents divorced, the film starts when they finally meet again after years growing up on separate continents. On meeting it is obvious their agendas are as different as their looks. The fiercely competitive, western educated Caucasian looking Jay wants international success for her cross cultural dating show. She returns to Malaysia to produce her dream, a reality show for the American market. To succeed she needs it to be as outrageous as possible. Jay's Malaysian twin sister, Joythi, the Indian looking darker one, happens to work for Ministry of Culture and something something. She is more introverted and has to learn to stand up to her sister while desperately trying to keep her job, while in charge to establish some decency in Jay's misguided production.

Clashes are inevitable!

The story of this mockumentary feature evolves during the two weeks production of the dating show pilot.. Through the seemingly different twins, Jay and Joythi the audience will witness first hand all the bruised egos, crazy accusations and extreme cultural clashes and misconceptions between East and West but also the similarities of two sisters being eventually just humans.

Ratings and reviews

Great indie gem that reminds of one of all my all time faves comedies, the spoof "Waiting for Guffman" The balance of "Office" style mockumentary wit and socio-cultural exploration really makes "Kinks" not only a great watch, but leaves you feeling a little more human when its over- something Hollywood movies can't seem to do very often these days.

I imagine that this was quite a challenging subject to write and film as a comedy However the film-makers have certainly achieved in what they set out to do. THis is a very charming and entertaining movie and I would recommend.

“Kinks” is a hilarious look at inter cultural relationships with a sharp commentary about the influence of western media in eastern values. The mockumentary genre is a perfect fit to the theme of the TV reality show in which the movie´s narrative develops. The constant tension between the cultures portrayed represented in the characters of two estranged daughters that grew up in different worlds is conveyed with great wit by the main actresses. Juliane Block not only co-writes and co-directs, but also stars as the western influenced sister that brings her morals (or lack thereof ) to a country where “in-decency” can be punished by law by the “Ministry of Culture” in which the other sister, a native Malaysian works. In general this an enjoyable movie that wold give you an insight into what relationships between clashing cultural worlds could be if we´d only care about the humanity of the people.