• 13290 Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:30:00 @ ACMI 1
• 40174 Sat, 19 Aug 2023 12:00:00 @ MIFF Play (Streaming)
• 13801 Sat, 19 Aug 2023 11:15:00 @ ACMI 1

Key Cast: Dylan Prasad Menon, Ethan Morse, Gideon Smith, Luka Piripi, Rosalind Lay-Yazdani, Tabatha Killick, Te Ani Solomon
Director: Paloma Schneideman
Producer: Thomas Coppell, Vicky Pope
Screenwriter: Paloma Schneideman
Cinematographer: Maria Ines Manchego
Composer: Paloma Schneideman

‘Would you choose them as your mates?’ asks this dark and dreamlike snapshot of a teenage friendship group.

After the end-of-year ball, several teens set out to shake off the dust of high school with quiet kick-ons in a palatial house outside Wellington. The vibes shift with the arrival of Yannick, a dropout who’s determined to amp up the party, whose blustering insistence on more, more, more threatens to spill over into blind rage.

A mentee of New Zealand grande dame Jane Campion (Top of the Lake: China Girl, MIFF 2017; An Angel at My Table, MIFF 1990), writer/director Paloma Schneideman summons menacingly moody atmospherics, conjuring both the dread of impending violence and the sublimity of loose nights. Impressive performances coalesce to create a cast of fully realised characters facing the dawning realisation that the only thing they have in common might be proximity.