Rebecca Frith Movies

Existing in that uncertain twilight zone between performance and reality, first time feature filmmaker Ben Hackworth's weighty directorial debut tells the tale of a legendary theater director who stages a most unusual swansong. Named after a rousing form of sacred rights performed by Australian Aborigines to acknowledge significant life events, Corroboree opens to find an acclaimed theater director (Ian Scott) preparing to reenact key moments from his life at the scenic country estate where he has come to spend his last days. In addition to serving as a personal memorial, the performance is also meant to help the many actresses who admire the theater veteran to find some level of comfort in his upcoming rendezvous with the afterlife. The actresses will all portray characters from the director's past, beginning with his childhood and gradually moving into young adulthood and middle age. The pivotal role has been assigned to a young actor named Conor (Conor O'Hanlon) - whom the director has personally recruited via a detailed, pre-recorded message. Conor doesn't quite know what to expect upon arriving at the remote country estate, but soon discovers that the various life scenes will all be played out in various rooms at specific times. While the actresses are all somewhat distant to Conor at first, they soon take him under their wings and provide him with personal writings that will help him to better identify with the director and provide a sense of continuity. As the performance becomes increasingly elaborate, revelations about the subject matter, the director's sexuality, and his carefully crafted plans for young Conor find the unique display taking on an especially profound air. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Recalling Peter Weir's Last Wave (1997), Manuela Alberti directs this thriller about Monsignor Tommaso (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who dreams that an Australian aborigine is trying to tell him something. When he learns that his daughter is missing and that the part of the country in which she lives is terrorized by a serial killer, Tommaso hops on the first plane. He soon encounters Willie (David Ngoombujarra), the aborigine of his dreams. The duo search the outback looking for the missing girl before running into city-born aborigine cop Sutherland (John Moore). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged disc jockey becomes romantically entangled with a pair of sisters in this quirky Australian comedy. Vicki-Ann Hurley (Rebecca Frith) and her younger sister Dimity (Miranda Otto) are both feeling stagnant in the tiny outback town of Sunray, and they welcome the distraction provided by the arrival of Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov), a formerly popular radio personality fallen on hard times. Despite his present circumstance, the burnt-out Sherry retains an aura of faded prestige that attracts both sisters. Vicki-Ann sets out to seduce the disc jockey, but it is Dimity who first draws Sherry's attention, setting the stage for a conflict between the sisters. First-time filmmaker Shirley Barrett plays this conflict not for romantic melodrama but for comedy, focusing on how Vicki-Ann and Dimity adapt to their experiences with the mysterious Sherry, whose enigmatic demeanor may hide a deeper secret. Barrett plays out this triangle against a detailed portrait of a failing town, emphasizing the distinctive local color and oddball characters in a manner that should appeal most to those with a taste for the unusual. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide