Movie magic rolls into city
AFTER challenging, enlightening and entertaining audiences with a wide variety of films from around the globe, the Melbourne Film Festival is taking a hand-picked selection of some of its 2017 programming to regional locations across Victoria during the next two months.
And this weekend, it’s Geelong’s turn, with four films in the MIFF Travelling Showcase offering a diversity of genres and styles while guaranteeing a captivating viewing experience.
The gripping drama Jungle, starring Daniel Radcliffe and based on the true story of a young backpacker’s struggle to survive being lost in uncharted Amazonian wilderness, screened last night.
But the other three films are screening this afternoon and this evening at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre: Sami Blood (2pm):
In a striking and awardwinning directorial debut, Swedish-Sami filmmaker Amanda Kernell tells a female coming-of-age story set against the little-discussed social prejudices of 1930s Sweden, told with an emotional power that will resonate with audiences.
Reindeer-herding Sami teenager Elle-Marja is sent to a boarding school designed to make its indigenous students “acceptable” to white Swedish society, where she excels with her fierce intelligence.
Newcomer Lene Cecilia Sparrok gives an exuberant performance as a teenager GIRLS TRIP Four longtime friends reunite for the wildest of weekends in New Orleans. (MA, Village) American widow Diane Keaton and homeless Englishman Brendan Gleeson form an unlikely alliance in this heartwarming romantic comedy. (PG, Reading) Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. torn between her forced desire to assimilate and burgeoning sense of self, while Kernell beautifully articulates adolescent anxiety and the impact of prejudice when one culture seeks to deny another. The Song Keepers (4.30pm):
The Song Keepers tells the uplifting story of women from the world’s oldest culture preserving some of the world’s oldest sacred songs, connecting Germany to indigenous history.
In the central desert region around Hermannsburg, west of Alice Springs, a hidden 140year musical legacy of ancient Aboriginal languages and German baroque hymns is being preserved by four generations of song women who form the Central Australian Aboriginal Jackson are at each other’s throats in this fast-paced action-comedy. (MA, Village and Reading) Stephen King’s classic tale of horror comes to the big screen as a gang of outcast kids battle the supernatural evil stalking their small town. (MA, Village and Reading) Diane Lane stars in this slight but charming story of a drive through France that becomes a