Birthright (Drama)

Rating:

Director: Zoe Pepper
Producer: Cody Greenwood
Screenwriter: Zoe Pepper
Cinematographer: Michael McDermott ACS
Composer: James Peter Brown
Editor: Luca Cappelli
Production Designer: Ocea Sellar
Costume Designer: Texx Montana
Key Cast: Michael Hurst,Linda Cropper,Maria Angelico,Travis Jeffrey

Drawing battlelines between baby boomers and millennials, this theatrical pitch-black comedy offers a fresh slice of Australian Gothic.

Cory (Travis Jeffery, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) and Jasmine (Maria Angelico, The Newsreader) suddenly find themselves unemployed and evicted. With a baby on the way, they hatch a last-minute plan to crash at the home of Cory’s parents, Richard (Michael Hurst, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Lyn (Linda Cropper, Offspring), whose accumulated wealth sits in stark contrast to the young couple’s situation. As the thirtysomethings spend more time with their privileged elders, generationally charged tensions build. Tempers soon rise, and the fights turn from verbal to violent – but which couple will end up on top?

Shot in Western Australia and premiering at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, Birthright brings a distinctly Australian sense of humour to issues of generational wealth disparity and the housing crisis. Award-winning director Zoe Pepper’s experience with actors and single-location dramas – gained over a decade-plus working in theatre and screen – is on full display in her crackling feature debut, a menacing farce full of relatable emotions and absurdly heightened reality.

“So utterly refreshing in the manner that it swings for the fences … I laughed from start to finish, and was left reeling from a brutal climax that turns everything up to eleven.” – The Curb


PRESENTED BY


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Writer/director Zoe Pepper, producer Cody Greenwood and cast member Maria Angelico are guests of the festival and will be in attendance at all metropolitan sessions of the film.

Cast member Maria Angelico is participating in the MIFF Talks event Consuming Culture. This is a ‘Pay What You Wish’ event.