Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde’s affecting coming of age family drama made a splash at Sundance this year scooping the best director award.
The Adelaide-set film, partly funded by the Adelaide Film Festival, tells the story of a precocious sexually curious teen called Billie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who has to come to terms with the news of her mother’s decision to transition into a man called James.
The film adopts an unusual narrative structure as it is built around the weekly meetings between the two protagonists every Tuesday for a year, all filmed in real time. (Hyde watched Michael Apted’s seminal Seven Up series at whilst at university hence her adoption of the same composition for her film). Adding a further layer of art imitating life, the actor who plays Billie’s mum soon-to-be dad Del Herbert-Jane was transitioning as the film was being made.
Comparisons with Richard Linklater’s Oscar winner Boyhood, famously filmed in real time may be guaranteed, but this is a distinctly original Australian indie that cleverly adopts a familiar dark and knowing Antipodean humour to adroitly express issues around gender, identity and family.