Guest Country 2024 – Australia
The Guest Country Event will take place on the 12th of October in Cologne, from 20:30 to 23:30. Before that, there is a reception with Autralian food and wine, starting at 19:30.
© Lilas-Mae Njoo / IFC FilmsEdimotion warmly welcomes our friends and colleagues from „Down Under“!
Australia was already planned as our guest country for 2020, but then the pandemic intervened. Now the moment has finally arrived: We are delighted to welcome our guests from Australia to Edimotion in 2024! Among them is editor Simon Njoo, whose film The Nightingale will be screened as part of the Guest Country Evening. Director Jennifer Kent's second feature film won the Special Jury Prize in Venice 2018, and received six Australian AACTA Awards.
The Nightingale is a relentless and disturbing examination of Australia's colonial era, in which all the protagonists are deformed by arbitrary violence and dehumanization. Researched, written, acted and edited with a palpable rage and force, the film is both the story of a personal vendetta, and of a reckoning with the historically authentic circumstances of the “Black War” against the indigenous population of Tasmania, as well as the fate of almost lawless convicts in the prison colonies.
Edimotion presents the guest country evening in cooperation with the Australian Screen Editors (ASE), and with the support of Screen Australia and Spectrum Films. To launch the evening, former ASE President Fiona Strain and ASE Vice President Scott Walmsley will say some introductory words.
______________________________________
Saturday, 12 October 2024 | Filmforum at the Museum Ludwig
19:30 Reception with Australian food and wine
20:30 Introduction by Fiona Strain and Scott Walmsley.
Screening of The Nightingale ( AUS 2018, 136 min.),
followed by a film talk with editor Simon Njoo, moderated by Dietmar Kraus
Tickets (TEMPO members and/or IFEF participants pay the reduced fee of 7 €)
© IFC FilmsThe Nightingale
Tasmania 1825: For Clare, a convict from Ireland, life in the Australian penal colony is hell. As a virtual bondservant of the British officer Hawkins, she is subjected to constant abuse and malicious violence. After a particularly traumatic escalation, she is left with only the dark urge for revenge.
Clare pursues her tormentors through the Tasmanian wilderness and finds support from Billy, a local tracker. He is a survivor of the “Black War”, a devastating military campaign of extermination waged by the British occupying forces against Tasmania's indigenous people. Their alliance of convenience, initially accompanied by Billy's mistrust and Clare's open racism, gradually develops into a friendship.
AUS 2018 – 136 min., English, Irish Gaelic, Aboriginal "Palawa Kani", with eng. subtitles
Editor: Simon Njoo. Director & Writer: Jennifer Kent. Director of Photography: Radek Ladczuk. Composer: Jed Kurzel. Sound: Dean Ryan, Robert Mackenzie, Pete Smith. Production: Causeway Films, Made Up Stories. Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman, Magnolia Maymuru. Distributer: Transmission Films (AUS), FilmNation Entertainment (INT).
Tickets (TEMPO members and/or IFEF participants pay the reduced fee of 7 €)
© Lilas-Mae NjooSimon Njoo
Simon Njoo has received numerous awards and nominations for his editing of successful and critically acclaimed films such as The Babadook, The Nightingale and The Stranger, including the prestigious Australian Screen Editors Accreditation in recognition of excellence in screen editing and outstanding contribution to Australian screen culture in 2019. He began his film editing career in France in 1995, where he spent 12 years learning the craft as an assistant to some of France's most distinguished editors, working on independent films d'auteur, studio films and documentaries. Since returning to Australia in 2005, Simon concentrates on pursuing film projects that challenge the conventional and explore film language in surprising and engaging ways.