The Proposition
Aussie films coming to Israel
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Cinemateques to host third annual Autralian Film Festival at end of May
The Jerusalem and Tel Aviv cinematheques are set to host the third annual Australian Film Festival beginning May 29.
The festival will open with a festive screening of “The Proposition,” written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hilcoat. The film, a bloody Western that deals with issues of loyalty and betrayal, features Guy Pearce, Ray Winston, Emily Watson and Danny Huston. Cage’s soundtrack won the Australian Film Institute award for best original music score.
The festival will also feature 16 films, including documentaries, animated films, and short films.
Sneak preview
Megan Simpson-Huberman, director of the Australian Film Commission’s IndiVision Project Lab, will be a guest of the festival, as will Chris Brown, producer of “The Proposition” and films such as “Mona Lisa” and “Absolute Beginners.”
There will be a “pre-premiere” showing of Sandra Sciberras’s “The Caterpillar Wish,” featuring Susie Porter, Victoria Thaine, and Robert Mammone. The film tells the story of a small town in Australia whose tourists all leave when winter arrives, and a 17-year-old girl's search for a father she never knew. The film is set for release in Australia this summer.
Other films to be shown at the festival include “Irresistible,” by Anne Turner and starring Susan Sarandon, Emily Blunt; and Sam Neill; “Oyster Farmer,” directed by Anna Reeves; and “Three Dollars,” directed by Robert Connolly.
Short films to be screened include the thriller “Plains Empty,” directed by Beck Cole and “Blue Tongue,” directed by Justin Kurzel.
Documentaries
The documentaries at the festival will present various facets of Australia. Scott Milwood’s film “Wildness” tells the story of nature photographers Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, who were born in Lithuania and Latvia, but are Australia’s best-known nature photographers; “The Lore of Love” shows an Aboriginal girl who is taken by her grandmothers on a wonderful tour of their homelands, where they will teach her about Aboriginal traditions of lore of love.
“Switch on the Night,” directed by Chilean actress Alejandra Canale, is a personal story of seven refugee children and their their dreams, their memories, and their fears as they deal with their detention in one of Australia's infamous immigrant detention center. “Remembering Rain,” directed by Mandy Chang, shows a remote farming community that is forced to deal with the area’s worst drought ever. The film is a portrait of land and character that raises the question of how feasible farming is in the driest continent on earth.
The Australian Film Festival is a project of Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange. The organization, headed by Albert Dadon, also holds an Israeli film festival in Australia.
