The Thousands

Flickerfest is on again and this year’s tour is changing tracks and stopping at the Judith Wright Centre for the first time. In an artform where every second counts lets quickly run over what we’re hanging to see.

Raju cycles skilfully through the range of emotions a couple experiences when they adopt and almost immediately lose their son. Shot in Calcutta, the German film questions family, morality and what the phrase ‘a better life’ actually means. Simultaneously devastating and heartwarming is New Zealand’s Ebony Society, in which two delinquent teens find themselves in entirely different roles after breaking into a house. Meanwhile, Funny Or Die’s Sundance submission Brick Novax’s Diary, shot with shady-looking plastic dolls and miniature sets, is a highly amusing and cleverly composed story of a has-been astronaut reflecting on his heyday.

Much of the Australian selection is less subtly executed, but still draws astutely upon current affairs and contemporary culture. Precocious Julian ensures that justice is served at his school by using his sharp mind and a bit of old fashioned blackmail; while Fish & Chips uses a similar tactic – child as precursor to the adult – to pitch Pauline Hanson against Barack Obama, Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin in the ultimate battle: a Junior Masterchef-style cooking show. In Cockatoo Matilda Brown is annoyingly endearing as a whimsical but well meaning ‘agency’ woman trying to help a broken man find closure in a failed relationship, while Teresa Palmer endures the consequences of a clueless boyfriend in Bear.