top 5 picks from the Melbourne International Film Festival

Since I came to Melbourne as an international PhD student in film studies, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has made me feel at home in a community of like-minded cinephiles. To quote Agnès Varda: “Cinema is my home. I think I’ve always lived in it.”

For this reason, I feel honored to share my top five films from this year’s MIFF. My choices inevitably reflect my viewing preferences, centered around my love of offbeat humor, dark dramas, and psychologically complex female leads.

That being said, here are the five films that were most memorable and impactful for me.

1. Sweet Dreams (2023)

Bosnian-Dutch writer and director Ena Sendijarević’s second feature film offers a more confident take on some of the issues she also addressed in her highly stylized debut Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019), such as female subjectivity and sexuality amid painful historical subjugation.

Set in the Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the 20th century, Sweet Dreams openly addresses the absurdities of a dark political past. The film looks back at the Dutch colonial project of exploiting the Indonesian people under the guise of bringing ‘civilization’, by exposing the irrationality, prejudices and infantilism of the colonizers.

The film is told through short fragments reminiscent of chapters from a Victorian novel. The domestic and sexual exploitation of Siti (Hayati Azis) by her Dutch master (whose sudden death is the starting point of the story) is central to the outrage.

It also explores Siti’s desire for emancipation and the amorous connection she finds with the rebellious Reza (Muhammad Khan). Siti’s final reluctant dance breaks through the colonizer’s perverse attempt to possess and control her.

The film’s visual language references the works of Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau, as well as Dutch masters Vermeer and Van Eyck. We see this vividly in the lush greenery of the exterior, the gaudy interior of the master’s house and the creepy, doll-like Dutch colonists, whose almost porcelain faces recall Arnolfini’s iconic portrait.

The tableaus of the film are brought to life by an infectiously eccentric soundtrack, inviting the viewer to contemplate and (self)reflect. Topped off with masterful acting – highlighted by Lisa Zweerman’s portrayal of the pregnant and mosquito-plagued Josefien – Sweet Dreams fully immerses the viewer in a world that is as absurd as it is tragic.

2. Black Box Diaries (2024)

Shiori Ito is a Japanese freelance journalist and filmmaker whose 2017 memoir Black Box sparked what many have described as “Japan’s #MeToo movement.” The heartbreaking documentary offers deeply personal insight into her experience of sexual abuse at the hands of the older and much better-known journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi, as well as her refusal to remain silent afterwards.

Yamaguchi’s connections to then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made Ito’s pursuit of justice especially difficult in Japan’s already conservative climate, where sexual violence is a major taboo.

Ito’s attempt to bring Yamaguchi to justice was unsuccessful, as Japan’s laws on sexual abuse at the time were over 100 years old and defined in relation to the use of force. These archaic laws, combined with political corruption and the reluctance of the police to help victims, meant that there was no real prospect of adequate legal redress.

Against these overwhelming odds, Ito shows tremendous courage and perseverance in her quest for justice as a journalist investigating her own experience. She portrays her tumultuous journey with emotional rawness and honesty as she turns to the camera, to us as viewers, to reveal the lasting layers of trauma that arise in response to sexual violence.

The film ends on a note of hope, as Ito wins her civil case against Yamaguchi and Japan updates its outdated rape laws by raising the age of consent from 13 to 16. These are small but important steps, as Ito noted in the Q&A following the film’s Australian premiere.

3. The House Is Black (1962)

This poetic documentary by acclaimed Iranian poet and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad was screened as part of a retrospective of the Iranian New Wave.

Set in a leper colony outside Tabriz, the film offers a compassionate and lyrical portrait of its disabled and displaced inhabitants. Focusing on bodies disfigured by leprosy, combined with Farrokhzad’s mournful voiceover reading verses from the Qur’an, the Bible and her own poetry, it considers the existence of beauty in “supreme ugliness, a vision of pain that no human being may ignore,” as announced in the opening.

Despite the overwhelming sense of melancholy that permeates the film, there is joy and laughter to be found. We see this in montages of birds in flight, a young girl brushing her long raven hair, children playing and the shy smiles of the outcasts.

The film moves at the intersection of movement and stillness, light and darkness, pessimism and joy. This is the core of the poetry of the New Iranian Cinema, which produces politically subversive ways of seeing.

4. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl by Zambian-Welsh filmmaker Rungano Nyoni is a gripping experimental film. The fictional story is interspersed with clips from a children’s TV show about local animals – including guinea fowl – that hint at unspoken memories that haunt the main story.

The film opens on a dark road in the deserted Zambian countryside. The stony Shula (Susan Chardy) is almost comically dressed as a guinea fowl as she drives her expensive car home from a costume party. We see no emotion on her face as she slows down and finds her uncle Fred lying dead by the side of the road.

There is a brief time gap where we see Shula as a little girl with the same blank expression. This hints at the disturbing experiences Shula and her cousins ​​had growing up around Fred – which become clearer as the film progresses.

Fred’s predatory nature is apparent but unspoken, shrouded by family secrets. It only appears in the cracks of the family’s usual expression of grief. The female elders, despite knowing what Fred has done, join in blaming Fred’s underage widow for her late husband’s despicable actions.

As the funeral proceeds, the female elders offer Shula and her cousins ​​support through communal singing and crying in secret women’s spaces that are closed off from the public. But we are never offered a sense of justice or hope for redemption.

In the final scene, Shula and her cousins ​​arrive at a family feud over Fred’s estate, squawking like guinea fowl, reminiscent of the way guinea fowl are depicted in the TV series, symbolically announcing the presence of a predator, before darkness engulfs the screen, leaving us to ponder.

5.Thelma (2023)

Most of the films I chose explore the violence, control and double standards that women are subjected to. Thelma explores another kind of oppression: the way society treats its elders.

The protagonist, Thelma Post (June Squibb), is a woman in her 90s who lives independently despite the concerns of her family. We are initially invited to see Thelma as a grandmother, mother, widow, and frail older woman, but it soon becomes clear that her agency extends far beyond her relationships. After losing $10,000 to an elaborate scam, Thelma decides to fight back and track down the con artists.

She teams up with her old acquaintance Ben (played by the late Richard Roundtree) on a risky but fun journey through Los Angeles on a tandem scooter. As Thelma and Ben hunt down the con artists, they must also fend off Thelma’s family, who are desperately trying to track her down.

At the heart of the film’s relationship are Thelma and her grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger), a sweet but aimless 24-year-old who can’t find a job, loses his girlfriend, and feels paralyzed by the crushing pressure of his parents’ expectations.

The parallels between them are uncanny: Danny’s parents see them both as hopeless, burdensome, and a source of worry, rather than people who are self-reliant and can take care of themselves. Danny and Thelma defy these expectations throughout the film, challenging stereotypes about young and old.

Despite all its thematic depth, Thelma is primarily a comedy. This was evident from the loud laughter and applause of a packed Forum cinema. The film serves up a hilarious parody of common action movie tropes, including high-speed scooter chases and a moment where you have to stop looking and walk away when an oxygen tank explodes in the background.

If you’ve ever wondered what an action scene from a 93-year-old actress looks like, you can’t miss Squibb’s performance.