Melbourne Indie Film Festival 2020 – Wednesday 18th March 8PM – Thriller Feature & Mixed Shorts

Malaysian Thriller Feature Film + Mixed World Shorts.

The best diversity of Asia, NZ & Australia stories.

Including Animation, Documentary, Drama & Thriller + Q&A with the Filmmakers!

FEATURE FILM:

A Stolen Life – Lin Shuhung – Malaysia

Writer: Luo Xiao, Gong Jing Yi

Cast: Tong Bing Yu, Eric Suen Yiu Wai

Synopsis: Flashbacks into the past. Mrs Chen is facing labor difficulties while giving birth to her twin daughter, and later loses her fertility. The younger twin was born crippled with a scar on her face. However, these pair of twins had been diagnosed as dead by the doctor months ago. This kept Old Mrs Chen suspicious on whether her son, Mr Chen did something to bring the lives back. Mr Chen is a Anthropology Lecturer in the university, and would often share his research on the spells to gain eternity to his students. This also causes many female student to come to him and offer themselves as an experiment. Chen Mo grew up normally in the family, but constantly has visuals of another twin sister in her mind. It was not until she grew up did she realized this sister is Chen Ji, whose face is deformed, crippled and being kept at the basement of the house.

SHORT FILMS:

A World Away – Chouwa Liang- Australia

Writer: Chouwa Liang

Synopsis: An interview-based documentary about the lives of two highly-educated Chinese wives in Australia and their religious beliefs. Over the course of a month I followed two of my previous PhD colleagues, Yijun and Jessica, which I knew were experiencing problems regarding their long-distance relationships with their husbands in China. After years of being apart with husband, the truth is that the relationship has been reduced only to its formal and symbolic meaning. Financial support has replaced love as the marriage’s pillar, and existential crises lead Chinese women to replace the lack of the husband with religious beliefs and commitments.

Arch-Rival – Liu Qiang – China

Writer: Liu Qiang

Synopsis: On War with Yourself. There is no dialogue in the film. Anyone can connect with it.

Lullaby – Ray Du, Christina Deng – New Zealand

Writer: Ray Du

Cast: Zhiyang (Zoe) Zhang, Zehui(Lei) Yu

Synopsis: The name of this short film 安 is a Chinese Character. From how it is written represents A women (女）under a rooftop (宀）which means women stay at home. which makes people think of SAFE, HAPPY, CALM AND PEACEFUL, etc, this is what actually 安 means. However this word, to the content of this film, it is kind of irony. This is the same reason we chose the English name ” Lullaby”. Here is a little background of this story. There were a girl and a boy sent by their parents to came to a foreign country for studying then they stayed. They met they married, they only have themselves but no other family around them. Then now, they are having a newborn with them. Everything seems perfect. But this new mother has no experience at all of how to raise a baby and she is having a girl; this new Father who has been out of the house since this baby was born, he is avoiding troubles and refusing to go home. Because she is having a girl, their very typical hoary dogmas Chinese parents think this is not worth them to come to help them. This new mother unfortunately after suddenly not be able to produce any more breast milk, then suffering deeply from the Postpartum Depression. Lots of people heard of this sickness, but most people think this PPD thing will go away soon or could not be that serious. So this short film is actually aiming at bringing more attention to those new families, especially those new mothers who really need support.

Home Safe – Julia Dawson – Australia

Writer: Julia Dawson

Cast: Annabelle Tudor, Adam Garner, Yvette Turner, Brett Swain, Ziyanda Matshe

Synopsis: Home Safe is a short social drama that follows a young woman’s journey home after work and the harassment that she witnesses and experiences over the course of one evening.

TICKETS:

$12.00 + Booking Fee @ Eventbrite

$15.00 door

Seats are limited

Advanced bookings highly recommended!

LOCATION INFO:

The Screening Room Upstairs

@ The Post St Kilda

Directions:

Tram Routes:

Number 3 or Number 67

Tram Stop 34

More Directions at: https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/

Please note it is a licensed venue and everybody under 18 must be accompanied by their parents or adult guardian.

Program subject to change without notice.