New Zealand / 2013 / 104 min / DCP / Colour / Ballet-Opera
Director : Toa Fraser
Script : Toa Fraser
Cinematography : Leon Narbey
Editing : Dan Kircher
Music : Adolphe Adam
Production : Matthew Metcalfe
Distribution : Version Originale / Condor
Cast : Gillian Murphy, Qi Huan
Toa Fraser’s beautifully photographed film captures the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s staging of the classic — about a deceptive nobleman’s punishment at the hands of vengeful spirits — while suggesting a fictionalized, parallel love story offstage between the two lead dancers. Giselle is acclaimed director Toa Fraser's interpretation of the Royal New Zealand Ballet's production of Giselle. The classic story of love, eroticism and death has been reinterpreted by Fraser to include both the onstage performance of the ballet, and an offstage romance that tells of two itinerant dancers, separated by time, distance and their abiding love for each other.
Toa Fraser
Born in Britain in 1975, he moved to Auckland in 1989 and is a graduate of the University of Auckland. he is a playwright and film director. His first feature film, "No. 2" won the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He directed "Dean Spanley" (2008), starring Sam Neill, Bryan Brown and Peter O'Toole which opened the Saint-tropez Antipodes Film festival 2008. He also directed "Giselle" (2013) and "The Dead Lands" (2014).