Mu
Brazil / USA / 23 min / Dir: Paul Yacono / Short / 2007 / Australian Premiere
A surreal mystery fable based on an ancient Japanese story about a traditional tattoo artist, who discovers that he is both dead and alive at the same time.
MU, translated as nothing, was used long ago as an answer to a Zen riddle. MU tells the story of Seiji, a traditional Japanese tattoo artist who tattoos the Yakuza in Los Angeles. Seiji grapples with his identity. Dealing with his desires and denials, he must come to terms with his own fate. A mystery fable based on the ancient form of Japanese story-telling called Rakugo.
Writer/director Paul Yacono, a former SCU student, has made a haunting and complex film whose metaphysical and psychological resonance will last long after the film’s images have subsided.
English, Portuguese & Japanese with subtitles.
Lesson Number Five
Lebanon / 20 min / Dir: Philippe Skaff / Short / 2006 / Australian Premiere
In the ancient Mediterranean city of Byblos, an eccentric English teacher helps a gaggle of old men obtain Green Cards and immigrate to the United States. After 9/11, they’re getting into more than they bargained for.
Through the fears of a small Christian community determined to flee the violence in the Middle-East, oscillating between past and future, East and West, theology and technology, reality and fiction, sense and nonsense, this socio-political satire explores the universal repercussions of our so-called ‘clash of civilizations’.
Arabic with subtitles
Pomiedzy (In Between)
Poland / 17 min / Dir: Jose E. Iglesias Vigil / Short / 2006 / Australian Premiere
Between solitude and love, is there a place for sincerity? Alicia is pregnant and wants to have the child. Her partner Mateusz, moved by a hidden reason, doesn´t agree with her life-changing decision. Fearing loneliness Mateusz will have to confront his own existential struggles.
Polish with subtitles.
Little Box of Sweets
India /UK / 90 min / Dir: Meneka Das / Dramatic Feature / 2006 / Australian Premiere
A gentle coming-of-age tale set in rural India. Asha (played by director Meneka Das) lives a simple existence with little thought for the world beyond her family, her village and her best friend Lalli, until she meets rich white Seth. The son of an Indian commissioner, Seth is well-travelled and highly educated. He shares Asha's love of literature and sparks ambitions and aspirations in Asha, as well as a dangerous sense of dissatisfaction...
English & Hindi with subtitles.
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