Mackay International Film Festival 2018
3rd - 5th August 2018
Mackay City Cinemas, 30 Gordon St, Mackay
Opening Night Film - 7:30pm Friday 3rd August
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (TOIVON TUOLLA PUOLEN)
Followed by supper
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
2017| Finland / Germany | 100 minutes | M | Drama/comedy
Language - Finnish | English | Arabic | Swedish | Japanese with English subtitles.
Our opening film this year is the wry, melancholic comedy from Finnish Director Aki Kaurismäki. This clear-eyed response to the current refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Displaced Syrian Khaled (Sherwan Haji) lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves behind his wife and job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable seafood restaurant. After Khaled is denied asylum, he decides not to return to Aleppo--and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director's work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurismäki's ever-reliable stock company), The Other Side of Hope is a bittersweet tale of human kindness in the face of official indifference.
http://www.palacefilms.com.au/theothersideofhope/
2017| Finland / Germany | 100 minutes | M | Drama/comedy
Language - Finnish | English | Arabic | Swedish | Japanese with English subtitles.
Our opening film this year is the wry, melancholic comedy from Finnish Director Aki Kaurismäki. This clear-eyed response to the current refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Displaced Syrian Khaled (Sherwan Haji) lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves behind his wife and job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable seafood restaurant. After Khaled is denied asylum, he decides not to return to Aleppo--and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director's work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurismäki's ever-reliable stock company), The Other Side of Hope is a bittersweet tale of human kindness in the face of official indifference.
http://www.palacefilms.com.au/theothersideofhope/
Saturday 4th August - 2pm
Aurore
Directed By: Blandine Lenoir
2017 | France | 89 mins | M Drama/Comedy
Language : French with English subtitles.
Fifty year old Aurore, separated from her husband, and newly unemployed, suddenly learns that she will soon be a grandmother. She feels as if her life is at a standstill and realizes that society is pushing her gently to the sidelines. But when she unexpectedly encounters the great love of her youth, something changes, Aurore decides to rebel, she puts her foot down and refuses to be relegated to the scrap yard of life. What if now is the time to start over?
A hugely entertaining blend of humour, truthfulness and sensitivity, Blandine Lenoir’s warm hearted romantic comedy AURORE, centres on a middle-aged woman in the midst of personal and professional life changes.
http://www.palacefilms.com.au/aurore/
2017 | France | 89 mins | M Drama/Comedy
Language : French with English subtitles.
Fifty year old Aurore, separated from her husband, and newly unemployed, suddenly learns that she will soon be a grandmother. She feels as if her life is at a standstill and realizes that society is pushing her gently to the sidelines. But when she unexpectedly encounters the great love of her youth, something changes, Aurore decides to rebel, she puts her foot down and refuses to be relegated to the scrap yard of life. What if now is the time to start over?
A hugely entertaining blend of humour, truthfulness and sensitivity, Blandine Lenoir’s warm hearted romantic comedy AURORE, centres on a middle-aged woman in the midst of personal and professional life changes.
http://www.palacefilms.com.au/aurore/
Saturday 4th August - 4pm
Menashe
Director: Joshua Z Weinstein
2017 | USA | 82 mins | PG | Drama
Language: Yiddish and English with English subtitles
A film based on the real life story of its lead, a non-actor from Brooklyn, as he fights to keep his son after his wife’s death has connected with festival audiences and critics alike. Performed entirely in Yiddish, a language not used in cinema for many decades, MENASHE follows a kind, hapless grocery store clerk as he struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven. In the wake of his wife’s death, tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. Meanwhile, though Menashe seems to bungle every challenge in his path, his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before his wife’s memorial and a chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood.
“A quiet triumph...
An engaging drama of intimate detail and
considerable humanity.”
THE GUARDIAN
“A touching depiction of fighting
for what’s most important in life.”
THE FILM STAGE
http://au.rialtodistribution.com/menashe.html
2017 | USA | 82 mins | PG | Drama
Language: Yiddish and English with English subtitles
A film based on the real life story of its lead, a non-actor from Brooklyn, as he fights to keep his son after his wife’s death has connected with festival audiences and critics alike. Performed entirely in Yiddish, a language not used in cinema for many decades, MENASHE follows a kind, hapless grocery store clerk as he struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven. In the wake of his wife’s death, tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. Meanwhile, though Menashe seems to bungle every challenge in his path, his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before his wife’s memorial and a chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood.
“A quiet triumph...
An engaging drama of intimate detail and
considerable humanity.”
THE GUARDIAN
“A touching depiction of fighting
for what’s most important in life.”
THE FILM STAGE
http://au.rialtodistribution.com/menashe.html
Saturday 4th August - 6:30pm
The Party
Director: Sally Potter
2017 | UK/Denmark | 74 mins | MA 15+ |Comedy/Drama
Language: English
A comedy of tragic proportions
THE PARTY - a comedy wrapped around a tragedy – unfolds in real time in a house in London in the present day. Janet is hosting an intimate gathering of friends to celebrate her promotion to Shadow Minister of Health in the party of opposition. Her husband, Bill, seems preoccupied. As their friends arrive, some of whom have their own dramatic news to share, the soirée gradually unravels. An announcement by Bill provokes a series of revelations that rapidly escalate into all-out confrontation. As people’s illusions about themselves and each other go up in smoke, along with the canapes, THE PARTY becomes a night that began with champagne but ends with blood on the floor.
”The Party is a short, sharp, funny shock of a movie”
“Unassuming and old-fashioned funny entertainment” Peter Bradshaw the Guardian
www.madmanfilms.com.au/the-party/
2017 | UK/Denmark | 74 mins | MA 15+ |Comedy/Drama
Language: English
A comedy of tragic proportions
THE PARTY - a comedy wrapped around a tragedy – unfolds in real time in a house in London in the present day. Janet is hosting an intimate gathering of friends to celebrate her promotion to Shadow Minister of Health in the party of opposition. Her husband, Bill, seems preoccupied. As their friends arrive, some of whom have their own dramatic news to share, the soirée gradually unravels. An announcement by Bill provokes a series of revelations that rapidly escalate into all-out confrontation. As people’s illusions about themselves and each other go up in smoke, along with the canapes, THE PARTY becomes a night that began with champagne but ends with blood on the floor.
”The Party is a short, sharp, funny shock of a movie”
“Unassuming and old-fashioned funny entertainment” Peter Bradshaw the Guardian
www.madmanfilms.com.au/the-party/
Sunday 5th August - 10:30am
Mary and the Witches Flower (Meri to Majo No Hana)
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
2017 | Japan | 103 min | Anime Kids and Family
Language: English
From Academy Award®-nominated Hiromasa Yonebayashi – animator on Studio Ghibli masterpieces Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo.
Mary is an ordinary young girl stuck in the country with her Great-Aunt Charlotte and seemingly no adventures or friends in sight. She follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest, where she discovers an old broomstick and the strange Fly-by-Night flower, a rare plant that blossoms only once every seven years and only in that forest. Together the flower and the broomstick whisk Mary above the clouds, and far away to Endor College – a school of magic run by headmistress Madam Mumblechook and the brilliant Doctor Dee. But there are terrible things happening at the school, and when Mary tells a lie, she must risk her life to try to set things right.
Based on Mary Stewart’s 1971 classic children’s book The Little Broomstick, Mary and The Witch’s Flower is an action-packed film full of jaw-dropping imaginative worlds, ingenious characters, and the and the stirring, heartfelt story of a young girl trying to find a place in the world. Featuring the voices of Ruby Barnhill and Academy Award®-winners Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.
www.madmanfilms.com.au/mary-and-the-witchs-flower/
2017 | Japan | 103 min | Anime Kids and Family
Language: English
From Academy Award®-nominated Hiromasa Yonebayashi – animator on Studio Ghibli masterpieces Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo.
Mary is an ordinary young girl stuck in the country with her Great-Aunt Charlotte and seemingly no adventures or friends in sight. She follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest, where she discovers an old broomstick and the strange Fly-by-Night flower, a rare plant that blossoms only once every seven years and only in that forest. Together the flower and the broomstick whisk Mary above the clouds, and far away to Endor College – a school of magic run by headmistress Madam Mumblechook and the brilliant Doctor Dee. But there are terrible things happening at the school, and when Mary tells a lie, she must risk her life to try to set things right.
Based on Mary Stewart’s 1971 classic children’s book The Little Broomstick, Mary and The Witch’s Flower is an action-packed film full of jaw-dropping imaginative worlds, ingenious characters, and the and the stirring, heartfelt story of a young girl trying to find a place in the world. Featuring the voices of Ruby Barnhill and Academy Award®-winners Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.
www.madmanfilms.com.au/mary-and-the-witchs-flower/
Sunday 5th August - 1pm
A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantastica)
Director: Sebastian Lelio
2017 | CHILE|GERMANY|SPAIN|USA | 104 min | M | Drama
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
The winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, A Fantastic Woman is the story of the prejudices and hostility faced by a trans gender woman when her older, divorced, partner suddenly dies. Trans actor Daniela Vega, in her screen debut delivers an award winning performance as Marina, a young night club singer and waitress. After spending a romantic night out with her much older and wealthy partner Orlando, the couple return home where later in the night Orlando wakes feeling ill. He is rushed to hospital but dies soon after. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando's family don't trust her. A female detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando's ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral and to make matters worse, Orlando's son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is, for most of Orlando's family, an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now - a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
sonyclassics.com/afantasticwoman/
2017 | CHILE|GERMANY|SPAIN|USA | 104 min | M | Drama
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
The winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, A Fantastic Woman is the story of the prejudices and hostility faced by a trans gender woman when her older, divorced, partner suddenly dies. Trans actor Daniela Vega, in her screen debut delivers an award winning performance as Marina, a young night club singer and waitress. After spending a romantic night out with her much older and wealthy partner Orlando, the couple return home where later in the night Orlando wakes feeling ill. He is rushed to hospital but dies soon after. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando's family don't trust her. A female detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death. Orlando's ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral and to make matters worse, Orlando's son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is, for most of Orlando's family, an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now - a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic woman.
sonyclassics.com/afantasticwoman/
Thanks to our sponsors
All films will be shown at the Mackay City Cinemas, 30 Gordon St.
Contact Details:
[email protected]
Proudly brought to you by Film & Arts Mackay
Contact Details:
[email protected]
Proudly brought to you by Film & Arts Mackay