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Sydney Film Festival, interview with festival director Nashen Moodley

A CELEBRATION OF GLOBAL CINEMA EXCELLENCE Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley presents the line up of the 73rd edition of the festival [https://www.sff.org.au/], a long-standing platform for both emerging and established filmmakers, that will showcase over 250 films from more than 81 countries. As one of Australia’s most anticipated cultural events, it offers cinephiles a unique glimpse into the year’s most compelling films in an inclusive and dynamic environment, highlighting innovative narratives, bold cinematic voices and the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary filmmaking. The Sydney Film Festival has become a cornerstone of Australia’s cultural calendar, drawing audiences eager to explore innovative stories from around the world. This year’s edition features 20+ world premieres, numerous Australian premieres, and films that push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Its flexible programming goes beyond conventional festival formats by adding films right up to the opening day, creating an element of surprise and excitement for the audience. A COMMITMENT TO ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND INCLUSION “TO REMAIN VIGILANT ABOUT OUR OWN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS”, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR NASHEN MOODLEY The Sydney Film Festival embraces the vital role of cinema in reflecting societal issues and fostering dialogue. The festival’s opening film, “Silenced,” directed by Selena Miles, exemplifies this approach by addressing themes of human rights and activism that resonate deeply in today’s political climate. Additionally, its “Europe Voices of Women in Film” section continues to promote gender parity by spotlighting talented female and gender queer directors from across Europe. This focus underscores the festival’s dedication to supporting diverse voices and encouraging films that challenge norms and inspire change. Throug the work of its director Nashen Moodley [https://www.fred.fm/nashen-moodley-festival-director-sydfilmfest-2/] and his team, Sydney Film Festival remains a vital showcase for pioneering cinema that combines artistic daring with social relevance. Its commitment to present bold, innovative, and inclusive films cements its role as a leading festival within the global film community. Audience can expect a rich program that not only entertains but also educates and provokes thought, reaffirming the festival’s status as a key event for lovers of passionate and courageous cinema worldwide.   The post Sydney Film Festival, interview with festival director Nashen Moodley [https://www.fred.fm/sydney-film-festival-interview-with-festival-director-nashen-moodley/] appeared first on Fred Film Radio [https://www.fred.fm].

“Diary Of A Chambermaid”, interview with director Radu Jude

We discover a unique insight into everyday life through “Diary of a Chambermaid”, by Radu Jude [https://www.fred.fm/radu-jude-bad-luck-banging-or-loony-porn-berlinale2021/], presented at 79th Cannes Film Festival [https://www.fred.fm/festival-de-cannes-2026-cristian-mungiu-wins-the-palme-dor-for-fjord/]. The film  blends theatre and fiction to explore the unseen struggles of ordinary people. This captivating film offers a fresh perspective on stories that are often overlooked in our modern societies, as the director told us in our chat. A JOURNEY INTO THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID The film draws inspiration from the “Diary of a Chambermaid” to portray the lives of women in domestic service within a contemporary context. By incorporating elements from Octave Mirbeau’s novel, which the film is inspired by, the director aims to offer social commentary whilst redefining the portrayal of the characters. The narrative is fragmented into short scenes, juxtaposing everyday life with theatrical moments, thus creating a heterogeneous blend of images and emotions. This narrative choice serves to highlight the complexity and diversity of personal experiences. THE INNOVATIVE USE OF THEATRE AND EDITING The film adopts a bold formal approach, incorporating theatrical moments to accentuate the authenticity of the dialogue and situations. The director relies on an editing technique inspired by Eisenstein, aiming to juxtapose different elements to create new sensations and reflections. The theatrical moments, chosen with precision and avoiding improvisation, are woven into the narrative to highlight the disconnect between appearance and reality, evoking the notion that theatre represents the true essence of life, according to Jacques Rivette [https://www.fred.fm/venice-82-official-lineup-announced/]. PLAYING WITH TIME AND SPACE The narrative structure adopts a chronological division by days, marked on screen, with sequences of varying lengths. This instinctive approach aims to give the impression of a sketched fresco, where each scene becomes a possibility or a potential for other stories. The abrupt cuts and the rapid pace of the scenes reflect a fragmented and unpredictable life, inviting the viewer to perceive the complexity of human relationships and the subtlety of power dynamics, particularly within the film’s social and family context. The film explores the banality and depth of invisible lives. Its plot, formal choices and temporal divisions reinforce the idea that reality is made up of multiple possibilities, where every interaction harbours a silent tension. The richness of this cinematic work invites reflection on the representation of individuals and their daily lives, confirming that a cleaning lady’s diary is, above all, a mirror of our own lives, full of unrealised potential. The post “Diary Of A Chambermaid”, interview with director Radu Jude [https://www.fred.fm/diary-of-a-chambermaid-interview-with-director-radu-jude/] appeared first on Fred Film Radio [https://www.fred.fm].

“The Birthday Party”, an interview with actors Benoît Magimel and Bastien Bouillon

Actors Benoît Magimel and Bastien Bouillon tell us more about Léa Mysius’ “The Birthday Party”, presented in competition [https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2026/lea-mysius-captures-the-weight-of-secrets-in-histoires-de-la-nuit-the-birthday-party/] at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. After “Ava” (premiered in the Critics’ Week section in 2017) and “The Five Devils” (Directors’ Fortnight, 2022), for this atypical claustrophobic chamber piece set on a farm that also houses a painter’s studio, the talented French screenwriter-director has assembled a terrific ensemble cast also including Hafsia Herzi in a pivotal role, Monica Bellucci [https://www.fred.fm/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-interview-with-actors-monica-bellucci-and-willem-dafoe/], and Paul Hamy [https://www.fred.fm/pascal-greggory-paul-hamy-9-fingers-locarno70/]. Our talk with Bouillon, who plays Herzi’s character’s husband, and Magimel, who embodies an ambiguous, scary party-crasher, was as friendly and relaxed as Mysius’ thriller is intense and disturbing. After evoking the motif of the past coming back to haunt you, a central theme of the film, Benoît Magimel tells us more about how he approached his mysterious character from a screenplay perspective, since he considers the script as ‘living matter’ and wanted, for this character in particular, to understand clearly where he comes from by imagining his back story and what brings him to that birthday party, on that fateful night. “Léa Mysius and I reworked the screenplay, because it seemed important to me to say more about his past with this woman, to bring in more context, and above all I wanted to talk about the prison environment and about what confinement can do to a man, how much it can damage him. And I also wanted to tell that story to this child, because he can’t just turn up thinking he will be able to build a relationship with her like this, so he had to speak his truth, and lay himself bare. That seemed important to me, but initially, it wasn’t really present in the script”. On the question of what each of them tends to look at first in a screenplay, Bastien Bouillon [https://www.fred.fm/a-pied-doeuvre-interview-avec-la-realisatrice-valerie_donzelli-et-lacteur-bastien-bouillon/] (whose breakout film was the mindblowing “The Night of the 12th” by Dominik Moll) says, “First off, it’s not my own part, it’s something more general. It’s the project I feel I can see in there, maybe understand a little – because of course, you never know what it’s going to become, what the final film will be like exactly. Then there’s also the human factor, but in any case [I always consider the project in its] entirety”.  The actor relies heavily on his instincts. “I couldn’t put it in words, but there are places where I won’t go”. He clarifies by mentioning projects ‘claiming to be political’, when it’s really just posturing. For Benoît Magimel, “what really counts is first and foremost the director, to the point that sometimes, the screenplay becomes very secondary. I also like discovering things, I like characters that have contradictions – that’s what I really enjoy, above all. And the issues at stake. And yes, the human aspect, possibly a sense of urgency, etc”.  The seasoned thespian – crowned Best Actor in Cannes back in 2001, for his performance in Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher”, very impressive in the more recent “Pacifiction”, by Albert Serra, and “The Taste of Things” by Trần Anh Hùng, which both competed in Cannes, where Magimel is showing, this year, not only Léa Mysius’s film but also Antonin Baudry’s “La Bataille De Gaulle : L’Âge de fer” in the Out of Competition strand – adds that he likes to feel ‘like I’m taking a risk, like I have something to defend’. WE TALK AT LENGTH ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY OF ALL THE CHARACTERS IN “THE BIRTHDAY PARTY”, AND ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BACKSTORY “Léa, Bouillon explains, has the great quality – in all her films, and in this one in particular – of never creating a single role that doesn’t have a soul. On set, I found her very present at all times, to remind me of that soul and of what’s moving in the scene at hand. She gives you space while also being very precise, and indeed, as Benoît put it very well when he was talking about the characters’ backgrounds, in this film, everything needed to feel loaded. I think that this is also why Léa managed so well to make the viewer feel like time is expanding, in certain scenes, whereas with this type of claustrophobic chamber piece, one may be tempted to favour efficiency”. Our conversation also addresses the inevitable surprises in store for the actors on the set of such a ensemble ‘drama behind closed doors’ bringing together such a fine group, each gifted with a role with real depth, especially one that revolves around a surprise party and throughout which the audience never knows who is who, what is going to happen, how much is planned and how much is slipping out of control. The post “The Birthday Party”, an interview with actors Benoît Magimel and Bastien Bouillon [https://www.fred.fm/the-birthday-party-an-interview-with-actors-benoit-magimel-and-bastien-bouillon/] appeared first on Fred Film Radio [https://www.fred.fm].

“Red Rocks”, an interview with director Bruno Dumont

During the 79th Cannes Film Festival [https://www.festival-cannes.com/], we sat down with the French filmmaker Bruno Dumont to talk about his latest film, “Red Rocks”, which was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight as a special event, followed by a masterclass. This time, the director, always highly recognisable despite the fact that his films may seem wildly different from one another – we owe him, amongst other works, “The Life of Jesus”, “Camille Claudel, 1915”, “Slack Bay”, “Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc” as well as “France” and “The Empire”, not to mention the series “Li’l Quinquin” – embarks on a new experiment and heads to the French Riviera to film very young children, aiming to show ‘not children per se, but childhood itself’, and through that, to evoke once again ‘human nature’, as he always does. On the love rivalry which ends up tainting the pure and innocent world of these children: ‘It’s the same trio as in “The Life of Jesus”, that is to say two people who love the same person, and that is the primordial conflict of desire. […] Whenever two people desire someone at the same time, it generates violence. It’s the ‘mimetic rivalry’ René Girard was writing about.’ What Bruno Dumont tries to do with every film, he says, is to ‘put the viewer into situations of life which culture need to address. We have to respond to that. Here, I am just showing the human nature, both in its grace and in its violence, without moralising – without saying this is good, this is bad –, in order to give the viewer the possibility of having a cinematic and artistic experience [akin to] catharsis. That’s what catharsis is: confronting our own demons. I can do it through humour, I can do it through drama… but the subjects I tackle are serious.’ On the contrast between the candour of very early childhood and this pure, almost primitive, slightly unreal universe, and the adult behaviours the kids gradually take on: ‘There is something very unsettling for the viewer in seeing such tiny beings on the verge of doing typically grown-up things, and I think that this unsettling feeling is very interesting, because I think it’s actually the adult viewer who is projecting […]. I think they remember their own childhood, but also see the whole germination of what they have become, namely the desire to love and, at the same time, the desire to kill.’ On the very peripheral presence of adults in the world we see on screen: ‘Adults make very brief appearances here, and most of them are quite odd. The idea here was to show both the strangeness of the real adult world and the power of childhood, of carefreeness, of that kind of total freedom in a world I find a bit ferocious, which is in fact our present.’ His approach, Bruno Dumont explains, is ‘not at all nostalgic. It’s about filming that light up above. I rather feel like I’m filming the world of tomorrow, where children will be free, without helmets, without rules, without bans, all that… [What I’m imagining here is] a kind of freedom which seems like a completely wild idea, but that is what we want. We don’t want rules, we don’t want impositions, we don’t want to be overprotected from everything: we want freedom.’ The filmmaker also explains how he went about working with five- and six-year-olds, and stresses that it took ‘a lot of constraints, to create an impression of total freedom: you have to keep them in the frame, their acting has to be precise, their expressions have to be just right… There are cinematographic requirements. This isn’t a wildlife documentary shot with a surveillance camera: it’s real work, and they are real actors.’ Asked about the fact that “Red Rocks” found ‘extraordinary coproducers’ in Spain, Bruno Dumont does not hesitate to say he is weary of the French film ‘industry’, which he finds arrogant, sanctimonious, moronic even, compared to the broad-minded people he worked with on this film. The post “Red Rocks”, an interview with director Bruno Dumont  [https://www.fred.fm/red-rocks-an-interview-with-director-bruno-dumont/] appeared first on Fred Film Radio [https://www.fred.fm].

“Ulya”, interview with the director Viesturs Kairiss

Presented in the Un Certain Regard [https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/ula/] section of the Cannes 2026 film festival, “Ulya” marks the latest feature by Latvian filmmaker Viesturs Kairiss. The film is a co-production involving Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, and focuses on the early years of legendary basketball player Ulyana Semyonova, one of the most dominant athletes in women’s basketball history. Set in Soviet Latvia in 1964, the film follows teenage Ulya, an Old Believer girl growing up in a remote rural community. Nearly two meters tall, she struggles to find her place in a world that sees her only through her physical difference. When a school photograph reaches basketball scouts in Riga, she is brought into the Soviet sports system and pushed toward a destiny she never fully chose for herself. For Kairiss, however, the film was never intended as a conventional sports biopic. “I’m not interested in legends in that sense,” the director explained. “I wanted to make a film about a human being and about how difficult it is to accept yourself when the world constantly asks you to conform.” AN UNCONVENTIONAL CASTING CHOICE One of the most striking aspects of “Ulya” is the decision to cast Latvian actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots in the role of Ulya. According to Kairiss, the idea did not emerge from a conceptual provocation but directly from the actor himself. The director recalled that Avots had long been obsessed with the idea of portraying Semyonova, initially imagining the project for the stage. Only later did Kairiss realise the cinematic potential of such an approach. “In theatre, a male actor playing a female role is something familiar,” he said. “In cinema it felt almost impossible. That impossibility immediately attracted me.” The choice became central to the film’s emotional and thematic identity. Rather than focusing on realism or imitation, Ulya explores the universal feeling of being perceived as different, alien or excessive within society. For Kairiss, the character’s struggle transcends gender or sport. “Every person has an inner giant or an inner freak,” he noted. “At some point in life, you have to decide whether to hide it, destroy it or accept it.” SOVIET LATVIA AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY While deeply intimate, “Ulya” also carries a strong political dimension. Set during Latvia’s occupation by the Soviet Union, the film portrays a society shaped by ideological control and cultural suppression. Kairiss stressed the importance of revisiting this historical context today, particularly against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine and renewed fears across the Baltic region. The director described Semyonova as a symbolic figure for Latvians of that era because, despite being Russian, she publicly embraced the Latvian language and identity at a time when Soviet authorities encouraged cultural assimilation. “For Latvians, she represented a possibility of remaining ourselves,” the filmmaker explained. “Even small gestures carried political meaning during those years.” Rather than reconstructing history as distant memory, the director approached the period through contemporary resonance. Themes of visibility, exclusion and social pressure remain central to the film’s emotional landscape. BEYOND THE SPORTS FILM FORMULA Unlike traditional sports dramas built around victories and championships, “Ulya” deliberately avoids triumphalist storytelling. The narrative remains anchored in the protagonist’s adolescence and emotional development rather than her future fame. According to Kairiss, this decision allowed the film to escape familiar genre clichés and move closer to an arthouse sensibility focused on vulnerability and identity. Ulya’s central conflict is not whether she can become a champion, but whether she can exist beyond the expectations imposed on her body. The film gradually frames basketball not simply as competition, but as the only space where Ulya’s physicality acquires meaning rather than shame. Yet even success cannot entirely resolve her desire for ordinary human connection. Reflecting on the film’s deeper message, Kairiss said that Ulya ultimately taught him the importance of recognising one’s own path in life. “You must understand your destiny and follow it,” he observed. “Sometimes instinct is the only thing guiding you.” The post “Ulya”, interview with the director Viesturs Kairiss [https://www.fred.fm/ulya-interview-with-the-director-viesturs-kairiss/] appeared first on Fred Film Radio [https://www.fred.fm].