Serving as the opening-night film of the 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival, A Mosquito in the Ear is an affecting drama that follows the very early stages of an American couple as they get to know their newly adopted Indian daughter. Based on the graphic novel Una Zanzara nell’Orecchio by Andrea Ferraris, which draws on her personal experiences, this movie effectively conveys both the excitement and challenges of becoming a parent. It also highlights the difficulties that arise when a child realizes their life is about to change entirely. It’s made even more effective by the quality of the performances and on-location filming, which emphasize various aspects of Indian life.
Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) and Nazanin Boniadi (LOTR: The Rings of Power) star as Andrew and Daniela, the American couple who we learn have spent 6 years trying to realize their plan to adopt a young Indian girl from one of the overcrowded, underfunded orphanages. Writer-director Nicola Rinciari sets the stage efficiently. The film begins with the couple leaving the airport, and its entire focus remains on the several days they spend in India as they adjust to having young Sarvari (Ruhi Pal) in their lives.
See Also: Kenny Miles’ Highlights From The 2026 Sundance Film Festival
We quickly learn that Andrew and Daniela are over their heads and that patience will be essential if they are ever going to make any progress. While calm at the orphanage, once the new family begins to travel to other parts of India on the way back to the airport, Sarvari doesn’t make things easy for them. Only speaking Hindi, the language barrier between this four-year-old girl and her parents provides an obvious complication. Making matters worse, Sarvari goes through stages of not eating, refusing to change her clothes, and closing herself off to at least one of her parents.
The movie wisely doesn’t push the idea that Sarvari is a brat or even particularly unreasonable. Similarly, while it’s tough for Andrew and Daniela, who receive continual help and advice from the eternally patient head nun at the orphanage, the dramatic urgency rests entirely on how well they adapt to something they knew would be difficult. There are moments where the film could increase its stakes to much higher levels, but thanks to level-headed thinking and writing that never forgets the importance of the characters, A Mosquito in the Ear never steers straight into melodrama.
Relying on understated performances means the actors’ work feels true-to-life, and the movie can find other ways to be showy rather than push towards over-the-top speeches to redundantly explain the themes. A key example comes from the way artistry is utilized in this film. Both Andrew and Daniela are artists, and Sarvari is a young girl who likes to draw. Various emotions are evident in how art is presented throughout the film, with little done to overly explain its importance. Other moments find Sarvari, in particular, responding to how the adults talk around her, showing just how savvy a girl of her age can be, even with the language barrier.
Ruhi Pal speaks fluent English, but her character relies solely on Hindi, and at times on no dialogue at all. And yet, the direction and the work by Pal do so much to make Sarvari into a wonderfully complex character. Having only lived so much of a life, even as a character from whom we can glean the least, compared to the adults who talk, it’s made clear how much she’s trying to reckon with in an attempt to contend with a new status quo involving people she’s never met before.
At the same time, the adult leads find effective ways into their roles. Boniadi’s Daniela is given the chance to bond with Sarvari more quickly, and watching her take on this active mother role shows off a patience that should be ideal. Without ever explicitly explaining why adoption was the chosen path, Boniadi leans into Daniela’s eagerness to be a good mom, ready to make the changes needed to be there for her new daughter.
Lacy plays Andrew a bit more hotheaded, but never in a way that suggests he’s unfit. His frustrations make sense without painting him as a bad guy. Early in the film, he chooses to take a walk rather than help deal with a situation. During this time, he buys candy, though one can clearly see he’s substituting this for cigarettes. He later returns and apologizes for his behavior. It’s not always easy to play up stress without shifting an audience’s appreciation of a character, but Lacy does a fine job here.
Director Rinciari is making his feature film debut with this story, and one of its strengths lies in its focus. While A Mosquito in the Ear is a deliberately-paced drama, there’s nothing excessive about how it plays out. Rinciari, having a background in animation, a format that very much relies on leaving out anything that’s bloat, may have been able to excel in his efforts here partly due to this reason. Naturally, adapting from a graphic novel also means expanding various aspects, but understanding that Rinciari apparently reached out to all involved in this story, let alone spent time immersed in the culture by living on location, shows in the film’s commitment to feeling authentic without prolonging the story.
What amounts to a relatively simple story is still quite involving thanks to the effort on display. It doesn’t hurt that the gentle nature of what’s taking place in this movie, with regard to an American couple wanting to essentially “rescue” a child from another nation to help give them a better chance at life, speaks to the sort of decency that can be found in stories rooted in humanity. However, even without leaning on the cultural issues this film speaks to, A Mosquito in the Ear offers plenty for an audience to become engrossed by, without ever hitting a false beat, let alone one that stings.
The 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival will be taking place from February 4 to February 14, 2026.
