The Travelling Film Festival, an inititative of Sydney Film Festival, is returning in August. The Festival will be held in the town of Casula in NSW from August 1st until August 3rd and will bring with it five diverse feature films from around the globe, as well as two short films. The program will take viewers on a journey around the globe, representing countries such as France, Morocco, India, Greece, Turkey, the USA and New Zealand.
The opening night program begins at 7pm on Friday August 1st with a screening of New Zealand mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. The hilarious film was selected as the closing night film for Sydney Film Festival and was incredible popular. The screening will be followed by a New Zealand inspired after party where attendees will receive free drinks and snacks.
Also screening is period thriller The Two Faces of January, beautiful animated French film Ernest & Celestine, Indian indie hit The Lunchbox and Moroccan family drama Rock the Casbah. Fresh off a successful appearance at SFF, the brilliant Australian short Pocket Money will also screen alongside Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Prize winner Yearbook.
Head here for scheduling and ticket info, but be quick because tickets will sell out fast! You can have a better look at the five feature films screening as part of the Festival below.
What We Do in the Shadows:
Wickedly clever and wildly entertaining, the new film from Taika Waititi (Boy SFF 2010, Eagle vs Shark) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) is a hilarious vampire mockumentary. A New Zealand documentary crew are given a guarantee of safety as they set out to make a film about a house of vampires in suburban Wellington. Wearing the all-important crucifixes, the filmmakers follow the vampires in the run-up to an annual masquerade ball, a gathering of Wellington’s diverse community of creatures of the night. The housemates – polite and sensitive Viago (Waititi), rebellious Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and lustful Vladislav (Clement) – are just trying to get by in modern society. They pay the rent, argue about the housework roster and try to get into nightclubs. They’re just like anyone else – except they’re immortal and must feast on human blood. When 8000-year-old basement dweller Petyr turns local hipster Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Maceur) into yet another bloodsucker, the toothy trio are faced with a series of challenges. With a smart premise, brilliant performances and a lot of fun, What We Do in the Shadows is a delightful exploration of the perils and pleasures of life as a vampire in the modern city. Read our review here.
Ernest & Celestine:
Winner of the Best Animated Film at the César Awards France 2013 and a nominee for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, Ernest & Celestine tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a bear and a mouse. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in winding tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for bear Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities.
The Two Faces of January:
Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac star in this sumptuously sun-drenched film adaptation of the classic novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose work has previously yielded great films including The Talented Mr Ripley. Hossein Amini, famed screenwriter for Drive and The Wings of the Dove, makes his directorial debut with this sophisticated and suspenseful story. Set in Greece and Turkey in 1962, the film introduces us to a glamorous American couple, Chester and Colette MacFarland (Mortensen and Dunst), who are holidaying in Athens. While living the high life, they come across a small-time hustler Rydal (Isaac) who begins showing them around, extracting cash from them along the way. Soon they are mixed up in a murder, and must rely on the assistance of their shady young tour guide to flee from Greece to Turkey as tensions rise and trust erodes. Amini’s passion project for 15 years, this is a gripping thriller set in stunning locations with beautiful people doing dangerous things. Read our review here.
The Lunchbox:
This Indian indie hit is a delicious celebration of romance and food featuring Bollywood/Hollywood crossover star Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire). The story is inspired by Mumbai’s remarkable dabba (lunchbox) delivery system, in which only one in four million home-cooked meals is ever incorrectly delivered. That one wayward lunch links a housewife with an office worker in the dusk of his life. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is an eager young wife trying to impress her distant husband through her outstanding cooking. Saajan (Khan) is a disillusioned office worker who is about to retire, further emphasising his solitary existence. A correspondence between the two is triggered by the lunchbox, leading them into a rich fantasy. With perfect performances and deft direction by Ritesh Bhatra, The Lunchbox is a sweet love story that has charmed audiences around the world. This Indian indie hit will screen with an Indian Feast + Ticket special.
Rock the Casbah:
The latest from writer/director Laïla Marrakchi (Marock) is a lovingly crafted family drama with a warm sense of humour. The film’s ensemble cast includes some of the Middle East’s finest actors including Morjana Alaoui, Nadine Labaki (Where Do We Go Now, SFF 2012), Lubna Azabal and Hiam Abbass (both from Paradise Now, SFF 2005), and the legendary Omar Sharif. The death of her father, a successful Moroccan entrepreneur, sees the fiercely independent New Yorker Sofia returning to Tangiers. There she is reunited with her grieving mother and two sisters, the beautiful but naïve Miriam and the uptight Kenza. Over the course of the traditional three-day mourning ritual, the four resilient women are forced to confront a host of long-buried family secrets that threaten to tear them apart again.
The Sydney Film Festival Travelling Film Festival will take place at Casula Powerhouse from August 1st to 3rd. Full program details and ticketing information can be found at www.sff.org.au/public/travelling-film-festival/tff-locations/casula-powerhouse/
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