Noise

Colour, 35 mm
Australia, 2006, 108 min
EP – European premiere
Section: Another View

Synopsis

The storyline of this hypnotic thriller takes us to a Melbourne suburb where appalling murders are committed on two days. The police presume the two crimes are connected and park a trailer serving as an information centre with constant surveillance near the bar where one of the victims was last seen. The unenviable task is also entrusted to one Officer Graham, who has been suffering for some time from a ringing in his ears. Defying the established rules of the thriller genre, screenwriter and director Matthew Saville shifts attention from the centre of the investigation to its fringes, where we observe the impact of the shocking events on the psyches of the local residents via the pain-ridden Graham. As the name promises, the audio aspect of this Australian picture is at least as important a narrative aid as the visual aspect, which is characteristically toned in dark hues.

About the director

Matthew Saville, an Australian filmmaker whose career until now has been primarily in television (comedy series skitHouse or Big Bite, the drama The Secret Life of Us, etc.) and in short-footage production (his films have been presented at more than 150 festivals). In 2003, in addition to other awards, his short film Roy Höllsdotter Live also won a Dendy Award at the IFF in Sydney and was nominated for two AFI awards and the Australian Film Critics’ Prize. While Saville was working on the biographical film The King, about the imaginary Australian television figure Graham Kennedy, his feature film debut Noise was presented in the foreign film competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.