Festival Programme

Films by Strand

Masters

This collection of films celebrates new films from the masters of filmmaking – those filmmakers whose work has lit up the screens for decades and whose careers we have followed for many years.

Also see the Retrospective collection, EO, Perfect Days, The New Boy, May December, Asteroid City, Monster and Pictures of Ghosts

Afire

Roter Himmel

Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold braids desire, artistic insecurity and the looming threat of climate change in his smouldering comedy of manners set over the course of a hot summer holiday on a Baltic coastline beset with forest fires.

La Chimera

Alice Rohrwacher

Set in 80s Tuscany Alice Rohrwacher’s enchanting new film stars The Crown’s Josh O’Connor as a lovelorn Englishman who teams with an eccentric gang of grave-robbers to plunder ancient Etruscan artefacts.

Last Summer

L'été dernier

Catherine Breillat

A dangerous romance ensues between a successful lawyer and her teenage stepson as Catherine Breillat returns for the first time in a decade having lost none of her propensity to transgress.

No Bears

Khers nist

Jafar Panahi

True to its title, there is not a bear to be found in Jafar Panahi’s latest piece of surprisingly mirthful meta-fiction, and yet a looming sense of danger is as palpable in the film as in the reality it mirrors.

On The Adamant

Sur l'Adamant

Nicolas Philibert

Acclaimed French documentarian Nicolas Philibert (To Be and To Have NZIFF 2002) takes us aboard a floating day care centre for adults with mental health challenges in this quietly observed yet unflinching Golden Bear winner.

Pacifiction

Tourment sur les îles

Albert Serra

Art cinema maverick Albert Serra takes us on an unsettling tour of the French Polynesian tropics with his latest anti-epic, a tale of political paranoia set to a backdrop of disquieting picture postcard sunsets.

Showing Up

Kelly Reichardt

A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt's vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.

The Survival of Kindness

Rolf de Heer

Australian maverick Rolf de Heer’s new post-apocalyptic meditation reveals the full spectrum of humanity: from the shadows of discriminatory violence to sparks of redeeming kindness, all told through the journey of one lone traveller, “BlackWoman".

When the Waves Are Gone

Kapag wala nang mga alon

Lav Diaz

In this haunting, grotesquely comedic thriller from Filipino art cinema hero Lav Diaz, violence, political unrest, and the dire state of a nation are the grand themes behind a tale of rival cops with a mutual death wish.