It's been a festival of highs this year, starting off with a bang by smashing out SWIFF's previous sales record at only four days in.
We’ve had multiple sold out Sessions, and two Encore Screening announcements, for Bellingen, the Promised Land and David Byrne’s American Utopia. Check out what you can catch at the last weekend of SWIFF’21 below!
What's on at CHEC Theatre
Friday, 23rd of April
THE LEADERSHIP
11AM · CHEC THEATRE · SPECIAL GUEST: DIRECTOR ILI BARE
Set against one of Earth’s last pockets of glorious untouched wilderness, The Leadership follows the maiden voyage of the first Homeward Bound program, designed to prepare women in STEMM for leadership roles within their respective fields.
Onboard the mammoth ocean liner is Australian Fabian Dattner, female CEO, ‘dreamer’, and Founder of the landmark Homeward Bound leadership program. Fabian’s vision is that once the professionals are equipped with the skills to lead in science, they can start to make meaningful change around the world. Over the 20-day trip, however, political and philosophical tensions slowly begin to simmer as the team begin to open up about discrimination and challenges they face within their respective fields
Following the film, there will be a panel discussion, including film Director, Ili Baré, Director of the National Marine Science Centre at Southern Cross University, Professor Kirsten Benkendorff, and Professor Marianne Wallis, Director of Research in the School of Health and Human Sciences at Southern Cross University.
COCKROACH
2PM · CHEC THEATRE
Umbrellas. Gas masks. Riot shields. Crackdown. Ai Weiwei takes viewers to the streets to reveal the most alarming parts of recent Hong Kong political protests.
Protests started in February 2019 when the Hong Kong government proposed a bill for criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China to face trial. Over two million of the island’s seven million citizens poured on to the streets, the largest uprising of its kind it the country’s history. What followed was an intense siege lasting months – and is still unresolved.
Cockroach is the name the riot police coined protesters, as concerns about the vilification and dehumanisation of citizens were backed by reports of widespread police brutality made headlines around the world. From within the tear gas haze, millions of protesters recorded footage – on mobile phones and DSLRs – capturing moment-by-moment as history unfolded.
SAINT FRANCES
4PM · CHEC THEATRE
34-year-old server Bridget (intimately played by writer Kelly O’Sullivan) finally manages to catch a break when she meets an actual nice guy, and lands a job nannying rambunctious six-year-old Frances. But after discovering an unwanted pregnancy and subsequently hurrying an abortion, Bridget begins to butt heads with the obstinate Frances.
Raw, bitingly witty, and unapologetic, Saint Frances approaches head on issues that women face every day: periods, post-partum depression, unwanted pregnancy, and body policing, treating them as the human occurrences they are and smashing taboos that have permeated for decades.
To call Saint Frances refreshing is an understatement; Kelly O’Sullivan and director/partner Alex Thompson have crafted an unflinching study of the expectations of womanhood, adult relationships, and the highs and lows of becoming entangled within someone else’s family.
MINARI
6PM · CHEC THEATRE · SELLING FAST
Hot Oscar contender, Minari is a tender, sweeping story that follows a Korean-American family in search of the American Dream.
Inspired by Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung’s own childhood in rural Arkansas, Minari follows the adorable, young David, son of Korean immigrants Jacob (Steven Yeun, Burning, The Walking Dead) and Monica (Yeri Han), as the family makes their way cross country from California to rural Arkansas to start a farm. Despite their initial excitement for their new lot in life, living in a trailer propped up on cinderblocks, David and his older sister grow restless in the regional backwater. The family dynamic is further rocked with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother.
Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari offers a powerful story about what roots us and shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
SAINT MAUD
8.30PM · CHEC THEATRE
Meek, god fearing palliative care nurse Maud (show-stealing newcomer Morfydd Clark) questions the foundations of her faith when tasked with caring for the hedonistic and secular famed dancer-choreographer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), who is facing the end of her life in at-home care.
Wracked with guilt, confused, and with a clouded past, Maud becomes convinced that she has been sent to Amanda to save her soul from Satan. Equally determined to relax Maud, Amanda unwittingly pushes her young nurse out of her comfort zone – and potentially over the very edge.
An electrifying parable in the vein of A24’s The Witch and Midsommar, Saint Maud would be well at home in the Old Testament. British writer-director Rose Glass’ debut explores the bible page-thin divide between devotion and delusion.
ACTORS CENTRE AUSTRALIA: ADULT MASTERCLASS
12PM · O-BLOCK THEATRE
Over five hours, learn professional new tools and unique exercises to create exciting, three dimensional characters, and what it is to connect to a story and other actors.
With a scene partner, you will spend 30 minutes on the floor being directed and working on a scene that has been selected specifically for your group, learning from other pairs as they take the stage in turn. You will learn what it is to breakdown a scene from initial analysis to making choices and taking direction on the floor. Limited spaces available – you can book with a scene partner or meet one on the day.
What's on at Jetty Theatre
Friday, 23rd of April
TWO OF US
11.30AM · JETTY THEATRE
Two retired women, Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier), have been secretly in love for decades. Everybody, including Madeleine’s family, thinks they are simply neighbours, sharing the top floor of their building. They come and go between their two apartments, enjoying the affection and pleasures of daily life together, until an unforeseen event turns their relationship upside down and leads Madeleine’s daughter to gradually unravel the truth about them.
Italian director Filippo Meneghetti’s debut feature and France’s Official Submission to the 2021 Oscars for Best International Feature, is a moving and complex drama – ‘an entirely unique and uniquely vital lesbian love story… even if you have nothing else, if you have each other, you have all you need’.
YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS
1.30PM · JETTY THEATRE
Under Iranian law, those sentenced to death have a chance to be spared by the family of the victim, with a select few cases for clemency decided in the living rooms of the Iranian people, via a reality TV show.
Spotlights and cameras are all in position as 22-year-old Maryam, condemned to death by murdering her decades-older husband, is supposed to beg forgiveness for her life. Whether Maryam lives or dies is in the hands of Mona, her husband’s adult daughter. The provocatively titled show, “The Joy of Forgiveness” will decide Maryam’s fate.
Taking place over just a few hours and almost entirely contained within the studio, Yalda stresses the harsh juxtaposition of the two women’s inner turmoil-turned-public-spectacle in this tense meditation of gender politics, culture, and religion.
THE FURNACE
4PM · JETTY THEATRE · SELLING FAST
It’s 1897. Caravaneers, brought to Australia by the British from Persia, Afghanistan, and India, drive camels across the Western Australian desert to trade between colony outposts near Mount Magnet and Kalgoorlie. Having developed close relations with the Indigenous population, whose knowledge of the unforgiving terrain is crucial for their trade routes, young Afghan trader Hanif (Ahmed Malek) forms a close bond with local Indigenous man Woorak (Baykali Ganambarr – The Nightingale, SWIFF ’20), even learning his local language, Badimaya.
Hanif stumbles upon a mysterious bushman, Mal Riley (David Wenham), carrying 400oz gold bars marked with the Crown’s insignia – incredibly valuable, but completely untradeable…unless they are melted and reforged in a furnace. With the promise of an awaiting fortune in exchange for Mal’s safe passage, Hanif is forced to make the ultimate decision that will forever decide his fate.
MY NAME IS GULPILIL
6.30PM · JETTY THEATRE · SELLING FAST · SPECIAL GUESTS: MOLLY REYNOLDS & ROLF DE HEER
Molly Reynolds’ My Name Is Gulpilil expertly canvases the life, the work, the adventures and misadventures of Australia’s most famous Indigenous screen icon, David Gulpilil.
Gulpilil started acting, performing, and dancing when there was no definable Australian film industry, working on countless films that have helped shape how Australia was perceived by international movie audiences.
From his international debut in 1971’s Walkabout, to hanging out with Dennis Hopper on the set with Mad Dog Morgan, Gulpilil was integral to Australian screen history for decades in Crocodile Dundee, and films including Storm Boy, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Proposition and Molly Reynolds’ Another Country among many more.
His three feature collaborations with Rolf de Heer were internationally celebrated – The Tracker premiered at Venice, Ten Canoes won the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize and most recently, Charlie’s Country, for which Gulpilil was awarded Best Actor, Un Certain Regard, an award only given a handful of times in the event’s history.
KAJILLIONAIRE
8.45PM · JETTY THEATRE
Con-artists Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity.
During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a stranger (Gina Rodriguez) into joining their next scam, but with Old Dolio raised so far outside of the norm of acceptable parenting, it was only a matter of time before everything backfires.
From acclaimed writer/director Miranda July, Kajillionaire is a profoundly moving, hilarious, and wildly original crime caper. An ascendant portrait of growing up outside the norm, with a beating offbeat comedy heart, Kajillionaire explores how we can be reborn throughout our lives, how we can rebuild our value systems, and how we can redefine our own meaning of family.
What's on at CHEC Theatre
Saturday, 24th of April
GUNDA
11.30AM · CHEC THEATRE
Director Viktor Kossakovsky’s follow up to big screen enviro-epic Aquarela (SWIFF’20), Gunda is a stripped down, close encounter with about the beauty of animals with the same majestic grasp over cinematography.
Following the absurdly photogenic Gunda, a sow with rambunctious piglets, Kossakovsky brings unique animals’ perspective to audiences, including two ingenious cows and a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken. Kossakovsky reminds us that we share our planet with billions of other animals, leaving the audience to build their own relationship to the cast, with no explanation, no voice over and no score. No interruptions.
Executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, this is an astonishing and pure expression of the wonder and emotions present in all living things.
FEELS GOOD MAN
1.30PM · CHEC THEATRE
What if the easygoing, much-loved cartoon frog from your underground zine was co-opted into an alt-right hate symbol?
When San Fran artist Matt Furie first conceived the character of Pepe the Frog for his online comic ‘Boy’s Club’, he could never have fathomed what would happen to his ‘chill frog dude’. Turned into a meme by controversial internet messaging boards, Pepe unexpected became the face of the racist alt-right movement, with Furie left helpless to stop it.
Tying insightful interviews and stranger-than-fiction footage together with dreamlike animation, filmmaker Arthur Jones takes this bizarre story through the internet rabbit hole – concisely exploring online life in the 21st century, meme culture, radicalization, and the unique journey of a sweet and talented artist and his fight to keep Pepe kind.
ASMF SWELL CHASERS
3.30PM · CHEC THEATRE · SELLING FAST
For the first time in 3 years, the amaysim Australian Surf Movie Festival (ASFM) returns to venues across Australia, and SWIFF is proud to bringing you ASMF Swell Chasers – To Swell and Back, with 5 jaw-dropping films that capture the world’s best big wave surfers battling the biggest waves on the planet. Featuring some of the world’s best big wave riders, including: Kai Lenny, Rodrigo Koxa, Matahi Drollet, Ross Clarke-Jones, Dan Corbett, Bradley Norris, Henry Davies, Shane Ackerman, Jake Osman and many more.
All films featured are directed by AACTA Award-winning cinematographer and multi-award winning surf film producer Tim Bonython, who has over four decades of experience filming and documenting surfing. Tim has spent the last 4 years chasing massive swell events for this year’s festival – an adventure that has taken him around the globe.
Recording some of the most ground-breaking scenes in recent big wave surfing memory, including pioneering big wave surfer Kai Lenny riding the futuristic foil surfboard in gigantic surf at Jaws, and fellow big wave rider Rodrigo Koxa breaking the world record for the biggest wave ever ridden.
MY NAME IS GULPILIL
6.30PM · CHEC THEATRE · SPECIAL GUESTS: MOLLY REYNOLDS & ROLF DE HEER
Molly Reynolds’ My Name Is Gulpilil expertly canvases the life, the work, the adventures and misadventures of Australia’s most famous Indigenous screen icon, David Gulpilil.
Gulpilil started acting, performing, and dancing when there was no definable Australian film industry, working on countless films that have helped shape how Australia was perceived by international movie audiences.
From his international debut in 1971’s Walkabout, to hanging out with Dennis Hopper on the set with Mad Dog Morgan, Gulpilil was integral to Australian screen history for decades in Crocodile Dundee, and films including Storm Boy, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Proposition and Molly Reynolds’ Another Country among many more.
His three feature collaborations with Rolf de Heer were internationally celebrated – The Tracker premiered at Venice, Ten Canoes won the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize and most recently, Charlie’s Country, for which Gulpilil was awarded Best Actor, Un Certain Regard, an award only given a handful of times in the event’s history.
DINNER IN AMERICA
8.45PM · CHEC THEATRE
Patty is a sheltered high schooler, living the middle American suburban nightmare. Naïve and outcast, she’s bullied in school, fights with her brother Kevin and is obsessed with punk rock band, Psyops. Enter Simon. Early 20s. Anarchist. Punk rocker. Pharmaceutical guinea pig cheque-casher. A walking snarl, he starts a lot of fights he can’t finish, and makes a career out of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And dealing drugs.
When these two outcasts cross paths, their radically different personalities strike an unusual chord between music and chaos. Set to the beat of brilliant original songs, Dinner in America is an empowering wild ride, destined to be a festival favourite.
ACTORS CENTRE AUSTRLIA: TEEN CLASS
9AM · O-BLOCK THEATRE
Over two hours this session will focus on games and exercises that are the starting point for all actor training.
Fun, energetic and interactive each participant will begin to explore connection, focus, commitment and listening. It is these games and exercises that will create the beginning foundations every actor needs to grow.
What's on at Jetty Theatre
Saturday, 24th of April
THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF
11.30AM · JETTY THEATRE
When two paintings are stolen from an Oslo gallery, authorities are quick to arrest the culprits, yet unable to find any trace of the enormous, photorealistic artworks. Czech painter Barbora Kysilkova, whose paintings hold deep personal sentiment, attends the hearing of Karl-Bertil Nordland, her drug-addicted art thief, and though he is unable to tell her what happened to her work, Kysilkova convinces him to sit for a portrait as a form of catharsis.
Told across multiple years and portraits, Benjamin Ree’s documentary unfolds a story of vulnerability, connection, and the revelatory kinship that grows between artist and subject. The Painter & The Thief is an unflinchingly honest portrait of bond emerging between an artist and her art thief, this moving, award-sweeping documentary asks whether second chances at life succeed.
WELCOME TO CHECHNYA
1.30PM · JETTY THEATRE
Investigative journalist, documentarian, and warrior with a camera, David France gains unfettered access to activists risking persecution and personal safety to provide safe passage for LGBTIQ+ people out of Chechnya.
Since 2016, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ+ Chechens, overseeing a government-directed campaign to detain, torture, and execute them. Director France embeds himself in the rescue efforts to smuggle out refugees to safer corners of the world. To protect the identity of escapees, the film employs ground-breaking, AI face-masking technology, along with hidden cameras, mobile phones, and found footage, to illustrate the searing urgency of LGBTQI+ people attempting immediate exodus from mass persecution.
ANOTHER ROUND
4PM · JETTY THEATRE · SELLING FAST
Vinterberg and Mikkelsen reunite after their masterful 2012 Oscar-nominated drama, The Hunt, to deliver an intoxicating and heartfelt comedy about a group of friends who embark on an audacious experiment: to see if a constant level of alcohol in their system will help them find greater freedom, creativity and happiness.
Martin (Mikkelsen) and his three friends, all teachers at various stages of middle age, are stuck in a rut. Unable to share their passions either at school or at home, they come across a theory from a Norwegian psychologist that constant modest inebriation could lead to an open mind and heighten productivity during the working week. With flasks at the ready, and with scientific rigor, the group decide to give it a shot. As the friends go about their school days, with heightened moments of clarity, the initial results are highly encouraging. But as they push for more of a challenge to their experiment, things get a bit more complicated and out of control. The ever surprising Mads Mikkelsen delivers a touching, note-perfect performance – including one of his most memorable onscreen performances to date.
NOMADLAND
6.30PM · JETTY THEATRE · SOLD OUT
After losing everything in the Great Recession, Fern (two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand), a woman in her 60s, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
A nuanced slice of life of Americana, Nomadland canvasses the lives of transient people, their stories, the catalysts behind their nomad lifestyles, all through a lens of social realism and authenticity. Chloe Zhao’s sophomore follow-up to critically acclaimed micro-masterpiece The Rider, Nomadland’s romantic portrayal of life on the road dances the line between fiction and documentary, with Zhao casting non-actors to play embellished versions of themselves; their “performances” sewn together under Frances McDormand stunning dramatic masterclass.
An awards magnet, Zhao’s Nomadland meticulously crafts cinematic landscapes designed for the cinema experience.
POSSESSOR UNCUT
8.45PM · JETTY THEATRE
Set in an alternate reality 2008, Andrea Riseborough (Mandy) is Taysa Vos, a corporate assassin who parasitically enters the minds of strangers with brain implant technology, using them as vessels to take out her targets.
Vos’ tenuous grip on reality starts to slip while inhabiting the body of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott, The World to Come, SWIFF’21), tasked to assassinate Colin’s boss and future father-in-law, John Parse (Sean Bean), blurring the lines between Vos and Tate as their minds battle for dominance.
Equal parts visceral and cerebral with incredible performances from Riseborough, Abbott, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Possessor explores a fractured psyche on the edge of sanity, utilising practical effects and hostile imagery in a gruesomely Cronenberg fashion.
Brandon Cronenberg, son of genre legend David Cronenberg, proves that a talent for creating cine-nightmares might just be hereditary in this neon-soaked, sci fi thriller.
What's on at CHEC Theatre
Sunday, 25th of April
BREAKING BREAD
1PM · CHEC THEATRE
For the first time in history, a Muslim Arab won Israel’s Masterchef competition – and now she is on a mission to create meaningful social change through food.
Dr Nof Atamna-Ismaeel is also the Founder of A-sham Arabic Food Festival, an annual culinary celebration in Haifa where Breaking Bread follows Muslim, Jewish, and Christian chefs, collaborating and creating together without any political boundaries – all for the love of food. Exotic dishes, mouth-watering cinematography, and an ideal that Nof freely admits is more than meets the eye.
Solving Middle Eastern peace with a little halva and hummus is a tall order. It’s the philosophy of coexistence and a celebration of dual cultures that drives her mission to produce a cultural understanding that breaks down barriers at the public level, not the political. Even if you eat before the screening, you will still come out hungry. Sahten!
SOME KIND OF HEAVEN
3PM · CHEC THEATRE
In The Villages (the largest retirement home in America, dubbed Florida’s “Disneyland for retirees”) the good life is waiting, with manicured lawns, synchronized swimming, nightly dancing, and pickleball.
Over 130,000 residents have bought into this packaged piece of paradise, and while most move to The Villages to live out their twilight years, the community is not short of swingers, drugs, dating, scandal, and seniors behaving badly. People don’t go there to die – they go there to live. But once you go in, it’s near impossible to get out.
Produced by Darren Aronofsky and the New York Times, Floridian filmmaker Lance Oppenheim’s debut delicately balances this absurdly outlandish setting with a deeply human, stereotype challenging, and vibrantly real experience.
THE GO-GO’S
4.45PM · CHEC THEATRE
Contemplating what it means to survive the music industry and its vices, The Go-Go’s shines with first-person tales, messy truths, and hilarious anecdotes, through a wealth of archival material and candid interviews. Taking a nostalgic trip back to the Go-Go’s meteoric rise in the 80s, all the way to today, as the band collaborates on new music through the strength of sisterhood.
JUMBO
6.30PM · CHEC THEATRE
Fresh from her breakout role in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (SWIFF’20) Noémie Merlant shines in this offbeat romance between woman and machine.
Jeanne, a late 20’s misfit living with her uninhibited single mother Margarette, prefers the company of gadgets over people. At her mother’s request she picks up a graveyard shift cleaning gig at her local amusement park. There she meets the park’s newest attraction and is instantly enamoured with his blinking lights and rotund form, affectionately naming him “Jumbo”.
Loosely based on real life cases of objectophilia, in which people fall in love with inanimate objects, Jumbo is a riveting, vibrant, and often hilarious ride exploring the uniquely human ability to find soul in the most unlikely places.
DAVID BYRNES AMERICAN UTOPIA
8.30PM · CHEC THEATRE · ENCORE SCREENING
A timely, earnest, and joyous experience, American Utopia is an inviting, celebratory concert documentary – blending song, speech, dance, and film.
Recorded at New York City’s Hudson Theatre, David Byrne is joined by a cast of 11 musicians, vocalists, and dancers from across the globe, performing barefoot and untethered, their instruments made portable – including every artist in Byrne’s grand dance.
Built from Byrne’s solo work, timeless Talking Heads classics and features from his many collaborations (including Fatboy Slim, St. Vincent, Janelle Monae and more). Byrne and Lee craft a dreamworld where human connection, self-evolution, and social justice are paramount, accompanying the music with musing monologues.
What's on at Jetty Theatre
Sunday, 25th of April
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS
1PM · JETTY THEATRE · SELLING FAST
Three elderly truffle hunters ruminate on ritual, aging, dining delicacies, canine companionship, and changing ecology in this unique slice of life documentary with echoes of Honeyland (SWIFF’20).
Deep in the lush forests of Northern Italy resides the prized white Alba truffle. Coveted by the wealthy, the cult status of this fungus is amplified by the fact that it cannot be cultivated, it can only be found in the wild by a tiny circle of silver-haired Italian elders – and their beloved dogs. With unprecedented access to this elusive enclave, follow the fascinating cycle from forest floor to velvet cushioned auction of the rich and famous.
A glimpse into a world where life moves at a pace out of time, The Truffle Hunters is sure to awaken an appetite.
BREAKER MORANT
3.30PM · JETTY THEATRE · SPECIAL GUEST: JACK THOMPSON
In celebration of ANZAC Day, SWIFF hosts a special screening of Bruce Beresford’s 1980 Australian classic Breaker Morant with accompanying talk by SWIFF Festival Patron Jack Thompson, himself an Australian Army veteran.
Following Britain into their war against the Boers in South Africa, Harry “The Breaker” Morant (Edward Woodward) is among many of the Australian soldiers absorbed into the non-regular army contingent, along with other ANZACs. To deflect attention away from war crimes committed by their superior officers, Morant and officers Handcock (Bryan Brown) and Whitton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), stand trial by court martial for allegedly executing six Boer prisoners and the assassination of a German missionary.
The officers’ legal defence counsel, Major J.F Thomas (Jack Thompson), admits the evidence is damning based on the basic facts, mounting the defence of his life, striving to save three well-meaning Australian officers from facing the firing squad.
Bold, uncompromising and completely compelling filmmaking.
THE FURNACE
6PM · JETTY THEATRE · SELLING FAST
It’s 1897. Caravaneers, brought to Australia by the British from Persia, Afghanistan, and India, drive camels across the Western Australian desert to trade between colony outposts near Mount Magnet and Kalgoorlie. Having developed close relations with the Indigenous population, whose knowledge of the unforgiving terrain is crucial for their trade routes, young Afghan trader Hanif (Ahmed Malek) forms a close bond with local Indigenous man Woorak (Baykali Ganambarr – The Nightingale, SWIFF ’20), even learning his local language, Badimaya.
Hanif stumbles upon a mysterious bushman, Mal Riley (David Wenham), carrying 400oz gold bars marked with the Crown’s insignia – incredibly valuable, but completely untradeable…unless they are melted and reforged in a furnace. With the promise of an awaiting fortune in exchange for Mal’s safe passage, Hanif is forced to make the ultimate decision that will forever decide his fate.
SANT MAUD
8.30PM · JETTY THEATRE
Meek, god fearing palliative care nurse Maud (show-stealing newcomer Morfydd Clark) questions the foundations of her faith when tasked with caring for the hedonistic and secular famed dancer-choreographer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), who is facing the end of her life in at-home care.
Wracked with guilt, confused, and with a clouded past, Maud becomes convinced that she has been sent to Amanda to save her soul from Satan. Equally determined to relax Maud, Amanda unwittingly pushes her young nurse out of her comfort zone – and potentially over the very edge.
An electrifying parable in the vein of A24’s The Witch and Midsommar, Saint Maud would be well at home in the Old Testament. British writer-director Rose Glass’ debut explores the bible page-thin divide between devotion and delusion.