Music doco, Mutiny in Heaven, which is directed by Ian White (Before the Fall) traces the tumultuous life of groundbreaking Melbourne band The Birthday Party, the film’s title coming from one of their songs. The iconic band featured Nick Cave at his most musically and visually punk and experimental and his most self-destructive; multi-instrumentalist and song writer Mick Harvey; bassist
Read moreShayda, which was the opening night feature at this year’s MIFF, is a semi-autobiographical film based on the childhood experiences of its writer/ director Noora Niasari. Set in 1995 in the Dandenong area, the film depicts an Iranian-Australian woman, Shayda’s (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) escape from abuse at the hands of her husband, Hossein (Osamah Sami). Having taken her daughter Mona
Read moreAustralian supernatural horror film, Talk To Me is a surprisingly effective variation on the old teens messing with the Ouija board concept. Here, Instead of a Ouija board, it’s a mysterious ceramic hand that, when held, causes people to have strange and disturbing visions, including seeing partly-decomposed dead people. Unwisely fiddling with this apparent magic is the troubled teen Mia
Read moreAustralian supernatural horror film, Talk To Me is a surprisingly effective variation on the old teens messing with the Ouija board concept. Here, Instead of a Ouija board, it’s a mysterious ceramic hand that, when held, causes people to have strange disturbing visions, including seeing partly decomposed dead people. Unwisely fiddling with this apparent magic is the troubled teen Mia
Read moreThe eerie, dystopian parable, The Survival Of Kindness is the latest film for one of Australia’s most intriguing filmmakers, Rolf de Heer. Like an Avant Garde play expanded to the big screen, this film relies more on visual metaphor than plot which will prove perplexing and possibly irritating for some viewers. Those looking to surrender their normal cinema-going needs for
Read moreMacedonian Australian director Goran Stolevski leapt to the cinema world’s attention with his remarkable, feminist-themed, 2022 supernatural horror film You Won’t Be Alone. With his latest film, Of an Age, he returns to Melbourne and more contemporary issues as he explores same-sex relationships and the attitudes of Anglo and Eastern European Australians through the burgeoning but awkward romance between two
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