Waangenga Blanco

In 1956, British citizens respond to an Australian migration scheme promising a better life and good employment prospects for a mere £10. For Annie and Terry Roberts, and their two children, a move to Australia offers a way for Terry to escape the scars of his service during WWII. In contrast, Kate arrives as a young nurse and claims to have migrated on her own due to her fiancé not wanting to make the move, but the real truth behind her journey is something else entirely.

Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.

Like many teens, Kim, a non binary fifteen year old, is overwhelmed by digital noise, constantly called back to bouts of scrolling by the pings of their phone – until a claw rips through their bedroom and drags them off to a kaleidoscopic otherworld. There, a sardonic alien dog called Jeff sets Kim on a cryptic quest for freedom: to travel to five islands over the course of 24 hours. Guided by Aboriginal Elders and crossing surreal, symbolic realms – a sentient library, a battlefield of ideologies and an ocean of memories – Kim confronts their fears and addictions. From rune-wielding Viking chefs to fascist pirates and a cyborg shaman, each encounter unveils deeper truths about nature, time and spirit.

A young man reconciles ancient tradition with the modern, urban world in this debut feature from Stephen Page, artistic director of Australia’s renowned Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Martha, an Indigenous woman, works tirelessly in a laundromat, until the monotonous routine is interrupted by a mysterious visitor who reminds her of the life she left behind.