Australia / 2016 / 102 min / DCP / Thriller
Director : Sotiris Dounoukos
Script : Sotiris Dounoukos, Matt Rubinstein adapted from Helen Gardner's book
Cinematography : Simon Chapman
Editing : Angelos Angelidis, Martin Connor
Music : Antonio Gambale
Production : Sotiris Dounoukos, Donna Hensler, Matt Reeder
Cast : Maggie Naouri (Anu Singh), Jerome Meyer (Joe Cinque), Sacha Joseph (Madhavi Rao), Gia Carides (Maria Cinque), Tony Nikolakopoulos (Nino Cinque)
Introduced by Sotiris Dounoukos
It begins as a love story. In 1994, Anu Singh, a beautiful and charismatic law student in Canberra, meets fellow student Joe Cinque and they quickly fall for each other. Theirs is a complex relationship. Anu is driven by ambition but racked with insecurities, and while Joe's gentle and easygoing nature offers her comfort, it also feeds the fires of her neuroses. As her mental state deteriorates, she formulates a malevolent plan to commit suicide and harm Joe. She finds support for this plan in Madhavi, a shy young woman enthralled by Anu and her intricate web of personal problems. The film delves deeply into the numerous psychological, sociological, and moral questions that swirl around the story. Most notably: why did no one do anything to prevent a crime that the accused repeatedly said she was going to commit?
Sotiris Dounoukos
He was raised in Canberra and is a graduate of the Binger Institute in the Netherlands, and the VCA School of Film and Television, where he received the Outstanding Postgraduate Student Award. His short film, A Single Body (Un Seul Corps) won the inaugural Best International Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. The screenplay was awarded the Association Beaumarchais’ Script Award for Short Drama in France, and the film also won the Dendy Award for Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival 2015 and the St Kilda Film Festival’s Award for Best Short Film 2015. Sotiris’ shorts have screened at over 180 festivals around the world and acquired numerous sales and awards. Past films include Mona Lisa (2004), winner of Best Student Film at Melbourne International Film Festival, and Paper & Sand (2007). In 2011, he was the recipient of the ACT Creative Arts Fellowship. Joe Cinque’s Consolation is his first feature.