Feature 1
Wednesday Nov 27 - 9pm

IN FULL BLOOM - Dir. Adam Villasenor, Reza Ghassemi - 1:25:00 - USA

Set after WW2, In Full Bloom follows two fighters, a down and out boxer from the US and the reigning Japanese champion.

The film explores the inner journey of both characters as they train for a world championship that will push both fighters to the limits of their will and spirit. There is a rare beauty in this film, not just the breathtaking cinematography, immaculate score and attention to detail in every shot.

On the surface, the film is a boxing match between two diametrically opposed warriors, but at its core, In Full Bloom is a sorrowful exploration of the search for self through sacrifice and painful endeavour. The film is deeply spiritual and poetic in nature, evoking the timeless marriage of beauty and brutality so evident in both Japanese culture and in the elegance of staged physical combat.

Feature 2
Thursday Nov 28 - 5pm

FORNACIS - Dir Aurelia Mengin - 1:23:12 - FRANCE

Anya, a woman in deep mourning, drives through the anguished night, a mysterious urn by her side. Consumed by sadness and loss, she arrives at a crossroads, a sleazy dive bar, where she discovers an atmosphere charged with taboo sexuality and latent threat.

Fornacis is that unique blend of experimental filmmaking and dark, David Lynchian psychodrama, that takes the audience on a disturbing road journey in search of an end to the soul’s lament.

Along the way, the inner landscapes of the character’s tortured psyches, emerge in a hyper real, dream like state where nothing and no one is what it appears to be. A stunning debut from this promising filmmaker.

Feature 3
Thursday Nov 28 - 7pm

LIFE ON EARTH: SEVERENCE - Dir. Angelo Salamanca - 1:28:11 - AUS

An alien pandemic threatens to wipe out the world’s population. Two scientists steal the virus from their laboratory and flee cavillation, escaping into the bush in a frantic last-ditch effort to find a cure. Life On Earth – Severance is an artfully realised sci-fi thriller that makes use of a restrained script and the complex relationship of the two main protagonists, played to subtle and emotive excellence by Billie (Emme Burnside) and Adam (Kieran King).

There is a gentleness to the film, a growing sense of desperation and need by the characters to find a cure for the disease threatening mankind, whilst escaping into the bush where their own mortality plays out in isolation and fading tranquillity.

Sad and haunting, the film puts a very human face on the pandemic genre.

Feature 4
Thursday Nov 28 - 9pm

LOCUSTS - Dir. Heath Davis - 1:26:00 - AUS

An independent, outback thriller. When estranged tech entrepreneur Ryan Black returns to his past mining boom hometown for his father’s funeral, he’s reluctantly reunited with his ex-con brother. But when the pair become entangled in an extortion scam at the hands of desperate small-town criminals, Ryan is forced to resort to extreme measures, exposing the dark underbelly of the sleepy mining town.

Heath Davis has created an accomplished outback noir thriller that encapsulates the desolation of remote regional Australia and the vicious nature of its cast-off, desert denizens.

There is a brooding menace and ever present threat of violence simmering beneath the impoverished shanty town and small town mentality of the trapped populace.

The performances are strong and the cinematography, superb. This dark and dusty Aussie gem will no doubt punch its way into the iconography of our larrikan outback thriller fare with classics like Wake In Fright and Wolf Creek.

Feature 5
Friday Nov 29 - 6pm

1000 KINGS - Dir. Bidzina Kanchaveli - 1:32:00 - GERMANY

Set in a surreal, nightmare world of garish color and abstract shapes, a dystopian society struggles for ascension from darkness to the light.

This unique and evocative offering from Germany’s Bidzina Kanchaveli, breaks shocking new cinematic convention.

The film’s eerie landscapes, hooded denizens and disturbing use of minimalist imagery are combined with a subliminal soundscape, to paint a metaphorical depiction of our very human struggle.

1000 Kings is a haunting cinematic feat that affects both viscerally, and on a deep, psychological level. Not to be missed!

Feature 6
Friday Nov 29 - 7:30pm

YOUR NOT THINKING STRAIGHT - Dir Luke Sullivan - AUS

Strewn on the blood, urine and liquor soaked tiles of a seedy public bathroom, a young man reflects on the prostitute who stole his heart in a series of surreal and nightmarish flashbacks.

'You're Not Thinking Straight' is a fiercely unique coming-of-age tale about what it means to be naive, lonely and clamouring for love in a broken world.