Laura Linney in Jindabyne (top); Ten Canoes by Rolf de Heer (bottom)
PRESS RELEASE
The 13th London Australian Film Festival
Thursday 15 March – Sunday 25 March
The ten-day London Australian Film Festival returns to the Barbican for its 13th consecutive year with the biggest and strongest programme yet of 25 new features (including for the first time this year all the 2006 Australian Film Institute award winners), eight documentaries, two family films, and three archive classics, including the UK Premiere of the digital restoration of the earliest film ever made, The Story of the Kelly Gang. As in previous years the programme is enriched by the inclusion before most screenings of shorts selected from Flickerfest, Australia's short film festival. In addition, the London Australian Film Festival hosts a free, first-come-first-served evening showing the 16 finalist Sony Tropfest short films.
This year's event kicks off on Thursday 15 March with an Opening Gala Screening of Ray Lawrence's psychological thriller, Jindabyne www.april.com.au/jindabyne/ his eagerly awaited follow up to Lantana, starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. Adapted from a Raymond Carver short story Jindabyne is the deft and chilling story of four friends who discover a dead woman on a fishing trip, but decide to continue fishing and delay reporting the body until later, with far-reaching consequences which shake their lives to the core.
At the Closing Night Gala on Sunday 25 March director Rolf de Heer will attend his intriguing and funny Ten Canoes www.tencanoes.com.au/tencanoes/, the first major Australian film to be shot in an Indigenous Aboriginal language. Set in the distant mythical past of the remote Arafura Swamp region of north-eastern Arnhem Ten Canoes tells of an epic journey of kidnapping, magic, love and revenge (see also Rolf de Heer's The Balanda and the Bark Canoes showing in the Documentary strand). [In addition to being the top winner at the 2006 Australian Film Institute Awards, Ten Canoes was Australia's Academy Award entry for 2006.]
Razzle Dazzle – A Journey Into Dance by Darren Ashton (top); Kokoda by Alister Grierson (bottom)
THE NEW FEATURES:
2006/07 has been a stunning year for Australian cinema with outstanding films from both emerging and established feature filmmakers. Among the many note-worthy new features included in this year's festival there are two which have both attracted international and high-profile attention.
International festival audiences, including director Kevin Smith and Harvey Weinstein at Cannes last year (where it received a prolonged standing ovation), were wowed by 19-year-old director Murali K. Thalluri's remarkable and affecting debut 2:37 www.twothirty7.com (UK Premiere) which also opened the Melbourne International Film Festival. 2:37, which has been likened to Gus Van Sant's Elephant, was inspired by a video suicide note sent to the director by a friend before she took her life. Over one day, Thalluri's powerful and compelling film chronicles the lives of angst-ridden teens attending an Australian high-school, which ends in one of their year committing suicide. This young Australian filmmaker is one to watch.
Darren Ashton's Razzle Dazzle – A Journey Into Dance www.razzledazzle.net (UK Premiere) is an hilarious fly-on-the-wall mockumentary set in Mr Jonathon's Dance Academy where sequinned darlings compete for Australia's most prestigious children's dance medal. Starring Kerry Armstrong, Ben Miller and Tara Morice and co-written by Brit comic Robin Ince, Razzle Dazzle is a piece of kitsch heaven which has been lauded by the likes of Ben Elton and Steve Coogan. Note: Razzle Dazzle is tbc.
The biggest home-grown hit in Australia this year, and AFI winner for Best Lead Actor (Shane Jacobson) is the hilarious Kenny www.kennythemovie.com, made by Clayton and Shane Jacobson. Kenny tells the hilarious story of Kenny Smyth, the proud, understated hero who delivers porta-loos to conferences, festivals and summer fetes. Kenny strives to juggle family tensions, fatherhood and sewage whilst still managing to keep a smile on his face. Note: Kenny is tbc.
Like the battle of Gallipoli resonates for Europeans, the story of the Kokoda trail lives on in the heart of Australians. In the historical drama, Kokoda www.kokodathemovie.com.au (European Premiere) director and co-writer Alister Grierson presents a frank and superbly shot portrayal of Australia's last line of defence against the Japanese Empire in WW2. The men were ill-trained, ill-equipped volunteers known derisively as chocolate soldiers, or 'chocos', expected to melt in the heat of battle.
Tom Long in The Book of Revelation (top); Sam Neill, Susan Sarandon in Irresistible (bottom)
Three films made by women directors explore very different interpretations of womanhood. Starring Greta Scacchi and Colin Friels, and adapted from Rupert Thomson's highly acclaimed novel, The Book of Revelation www.thebookofrevelation.com.au is director Ana Kokkinos' explosive and erotic second feature film, which reverses gender roles. A dancer at the peak of his powers is mysteriously abducted by three women, abused then thrown back into the world 12 days later. A broken spirit, he struggles to renegotiate his place in his former life in light of the unimaginable circumstances he's just gone through. In Ann Turner's Irresistible, Susan Sarandon and Sam Neill star in a chilling thriller of jealousy and paranoia. Sarandon plays Sophie Hartley who's convinced that her husband's beautiful colleague (Emily Blunt) is a crazy stalker trying to destroy her marriage, family and life, but no one believes her. Sandra Sciberras' The Caterpillar Wish www.thecaterpillarwish.com (UK Premiere) is the uplifting story of 17-year-old Emily who believes, and persuades her elders, that life can be better. Set in the magnificently cine-genic seaside town of Robe, South Australia, starring Sacha Horler, Wendy Hughes, Robert Mammone and Susie Porter (who won an AFI for Best Supporting Actress), this is an inspiring and moving story about ordinary people – mothers and daughters, husbands and lovers – who find the courage to believe they have the power to transform their own lives.
Throughout the festival filmmakers and actors give Barbican ScreenTalks. Confirmed so far are: director Rolf de Heer for the Closing Gala of Ten Canoes; writer/narrator Bob Randall for Kanyini; director Martin Simpson and actress Ayse Tezel for the World Premiere of Gene X www.gene-xmovie.com; actress Ayse Tezel and co-producer Michael Rowe for Court of Lonely Royals; actress Sally Phillips for the European Premiere for Boytown; director Daniel Lapaine for the UK Premiere of 48 Shades www.48shadesmovie.com.au/; actress Amanda Douge for UK Premiere of Five Moments of Infidelity; Stephen Moyer for Ravenswood, and cast and crew members for Like Minds.