By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The pair of movies are on their way up from Down Under.
Dark Sky Films and Watermelon Pictures have announced that they will open the New Zealand Gothic horror movie MÃRAMA (pictured), their first collaboration, in New York and Los Angeles April 17, following festival play at TIFF, Palm Springs, AFI Fest, Sitges and others. It will play at New York City’s IFC Center and Los Angeles’ Laemmle Monica Film Center and Laemmle Glendale, with further release details to come. Written and directed by Māori filmmaker Taratoa Stappard, it stars Māori actor Ariāna Osborne, British actors Toby Stephens and Umi Myers and New Zealanders Erroll Shand and Jordan Mooney. The synopsis: “Set in North Yorkshire, Victorian England, 1859, MĀRAMA is the story of a young Māori woman’s fight to reclaim her identity and indigenous culture. When a young Māori woman is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, she uncovers her horrific colonial heritage and is compelled to confront and destroy the titled Englishman who devastated her family.”
Meanwhile, Wirra Distribution, Australia’s only indigenous-owned film-releasing company, has debuted the theatrical poster for Aboriginal writer/director/star Thibul Nettle’s psychological chiller THE SHADOWS OF TRUST. The cast also includes Sarah Jeavons, Georgia Williams and Trung Le; the synopsis: “THE SHADOWS OF TRUST follows Phoebe and Alex Clarke’s [Jeavons and Nettle] idyllic life at a secluded country home as it unravels when disturbing events uncover buried secrets—and a mysterious neighbor [Williams] threaten to expose everything. The contained film is a tense, character-driven narrative that blurs the line between perception and reality to deliver an emotionally charged and psychologically gripping experience, appealing to fans of elevated thriller storytelling.”
“Releasing the official poster is an exciting milestone for us,” says Wirra Distribution founder Travis Akbar. “This film represents a bold and distinctive voice in Australian cinema, and the poster captures the essence of its tone: intimate and unsettling.”
