the Curb

Matthew Rankin is a Canadian filmmaker who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work, which includes the acclaimed award-winning 2019 feature The Twentieth Century, has often been called 'experimental' or a slice of 'absurdist comedy'. That's partially true, but I'd go a step further and say that there's a touch of humanist storytelling to his work, one that's crafted from a globalist perspective. That mindset is accentuated with Rankin's latest film, the tender and superb Universal Language, a Canadian film where characters speak in Persian rather than English or French, where a guide shows a group of bored tourists the banal sites of Winnipeg, where turkey shop owners wear pink cowboy hats, and where two young kids, Negin (played by Rojinia Esmaeili) and Nazgol (played by Saba Vahedyousefi), find money frozen in ice and seek a way to retrieve it so they can buy their classmate a new pair of glasses.

This is our world knocked off its axis ever so slightly. It's a place which is familiar, yet distinctly different. It's a place where cemeteries sit in the desolate concrete islands that exist within a sea of swarming highways. It's a place that, for Matthew Rankin, is a version of home. The choice to present a Canadian story in Persian is not accidental, but instead it's one that's driven by Rankin's affection for the work of the Iranian masters and for their distinctly considered perspective of the world. That kindness that sits at the core of Universal Language is a reflection of the innocence and kindness within the world of filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, particularly in a noted work like 1987's Where Is the Friend's House?, which sees a young boy trying to return the book of his classmate who lives on the other side of the village.

The foundation of kindness is one of the notions that is explored in the following conversation with Matthew, recorded ahead of Universal Language's national release in Australia on 22 May 2025. Throughout the interview, Matthew also talks about his journey into appreciating and valuing Iranian cinema, an affection which lead him to learn Farsi. Matthew also talks about the way his parents factor into Universal Language as a mirrored presence, before closing on the emotionality of bringing a version of their story to life on screen.

Universal Language is a work of pure kindness and comedy. There's a sweetness to it that makes the film feel like an antidote to the times we are currently living through.

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Isabella Tree is a noted conservationist and the author of the acclaimed book Wilding, which tells the story of Isabella and her husband as they undertook the immense and impressive journey to rewild their failing four-hundred-year-old estate in England, bringing beavers and cranes back to the country for the first time in years.

Wilding, alongside the work of fellow conservationist Derek Gow, author of such books as Birds, Beasts, and Bedlam and Bringing Back the Beaver, have become foundational texts for me, having guided my perspective as a wannabe conservationist, albeit with a minimalist perspective as someone trapped in the midst of suburbia and rental life.

Wilding is a lovely film, green and grand with its ideas and vision. I was lucky to be able to speak with Isabella ahead of the films run in Australian cinemas from 22 May. The following interview kicks off with a nod to our respective stacked bookshelves which stood behind us in our Zoom windows to our lives and the importance of not just rewilding our environment, but also rewilding our minds too. Isabella then talks about reflecting on the years since her rewilding project kicked off, and how she has engaged with global rewilding, including nods to local conservationists and ecologists.

Wilding is out in Australian cinemas for a limited run from 22 May 2025. Check your local cinema for screening details. To find out more about Isabella's work, visit IsabellaTree.com.

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Co-writer and actor Archie Lush, director Alex Power, and producer Mark Zanosov take us to the streets of Fremantle, Western Australia, where their short film Blunt pushes us into the simmering heat of the kitchen. Under the spatter of duck fat and the glint of sharp knives is the mounting pressure of being a top tier chef, a notion that's amplified by Archie Lush's emerging culinary creative need to try and save his fathers struggling restaurant. Shot with a vivid realisation from one of Australia's finest emerging talents, cinematographer James Dudfield, and edited with precision by Hamish Paterson, Blunt is a rapid fire short that immerses you in the world of fine dining in a way that'll scratch that itch between seasons of The Bear.

In the following interview, Archie, Alex, and Mark talk about shooting in Freo, the importance of having stylistic and stunning food - as created by key food stylist Iara Arruda, and where they each see their creatives journeys going over the coming years. They also talk about the dedication and visual talent that exists within James Dudfield.

Blunt is heading out on the festival circuit, so keep an eye out for it.

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Genevieve Bailey is a documentarian who has drawn attention to the impact of societal struggles with mental illness through her empathetic and nurturing body of work. With feature films like I Am Eleven and Happy Sad Man, Gen embraces a supportive mindset, using the power of cinema to bring real stories to audiences. It's that sense of support that is keenly felt in her latest documentary, Always Listening, a short film about the history of Lifeline Australia. Gen takes us to the end of the telephone where we meet the many counsellors and support people who volunteer their time, emotions, and empathetic listening skills to guide people through mental health crisis events, suicidal ideation, and other critical mental struggles.

Like Gen's previous film Happy Sad Man, Always Listening is a beautiful and moving experience, opening audiences up to the power of understanding emotion and empathy, while also guiding people who live with their own mental health struggles to understand that there is help available and that people are there to support you through your most difficult moments. It's these two mindsets - the support and the supported - that has changed how I navigate my interviews and film coverage, leading me to ask questions that are focused around the emotion of a film, rather than the creative process of 'how it was made'.

That mindset shift comes from getting to see who the people are on the other end of the line: everyday folks who have sometimes been through their own mental health crisis, or live with their own struggles, or simply know what it's like to be in a place of need and are able to support those who need it most. These are gentle, genuine folks who are caring, engaged, and understand the complexity of the weight of the mental health crisis Australia, and by extension, the world faces.

Again, that's a notion that underpins how Genevieve Bailey embraces her work as a documentarian, telling stories that matter about people that care. I'm grateful to have been able to talk with Gen about Always Listening, but to also be able to share with you her stories, including the impact her films have had on audiences around the world.

Always Listening is screening on SBS On Demand right now. It's only thirty minutes long, but will leave a mark. If you or someone you love is going through a mental health crisis, Lifeline Australia is available 24/7 on 13 11 14. For more information, visit Lifeline.org.au.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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Nadine Whitney had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Karan Kandhari and Radhika Apte about Sister Midnight and how as original and ‘weird’ as it is, it’s also representative of people who are rarely seen as (essential) inhabitants of Mumbai. Both Karan and Radhika are an absolute joy to listen to.  

Kandhari’s film is a marvel of inventiveness. The work itself breaks the rules of what is considered genre cinema by never settling on one. Sister Midnight is much like the artist who performed the song after which it is named. Igwald Popstar – known to people who haven’t chosen a ridiculous nickname for him as Iggy Pop or James Newell Osterberg Jr., – a man for whom conformity is as anathema as wearing a shirt. It’s punk, it’s unpredictable, and it has no time to explain itself to people who aren’t feeling its strange and wonderful rhythms.

Uma and Gopal barely speak to each other but when Uma does open her mouth the crude (but funny) invectives pour out. Her spikiness doesn’t bother her neighbour Sheetal (Chhaya Kadam) greatly who takes her under her own resigned wing. However, even when Uma tries (and fails) to be wifely Gopal isn’t particularly receptive preferring instead to drink alone than to accommodate Uma. When they do try to be a young couple, they end up taking a pointless thirteen-hour excursion to a beach, only to have to turn around and go home again. Life seems to demand that when they are with each other it is in extremely close quarters which makes Uma more aggressive and Gopal more avoidant. The green wedding bangles she wears (and shakes in anger) become shackles she can’t wait to have cut off.

Uma begins to make her own way through the city encountering other people whose lives are on the fringes. A trans sex worker who feels a kind of kinship with Uma’s oddness. An elevator attendant in a building she begins working at as a cleaner (“Can you clean?” Uma is asked. “I’m a domestic goddess.” She replies), and then there are the goats who seem to follow her wherever she goes. Something is rising in her – something feral and undeniable – neither welcomed nor wholly unwelcomed.

Trying to describe what goes on in Sister Midnight is much like humming a blisteringly brilliant song and hoping your paltry version matches up. Karan Kandhari’s marvellous vision simply needs to be seen and heard (the soundtrack is incredible) for the fantastic jolts to pull you into its idiosyncratic and singular orbit.

Sister Midnight is vivid and infectious. Radhika Apte is towering as Uma who inability to just “be a person” makes her an outlaw setting her own rules. Expect the unexpected in Sister Midnight and trust wherever it takes you is going to be rebellious and irresistible. 

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Lorcan Finnegan's wild and weird trip-fest flick The Surfer is one that's had local audiences salivating at the prospect of its arrival. That anticipation went into hyperdrive when Oscar winning actor and walking cult-factory Nicolas Cage was announced as the leading man, a bloke returning home to the South West to buy his family home, reconnect with family, and surf a little. His idea of a Christmas sojourn is scarpered when 'the locals', headed up by Julian McMahon at his career best, thwart his chance of escaping the heat and securing the home he has his eyes on.

The Surfer is, admittedly, a divisive flick, with reactions ranging from comparisons to Wake in Fright, to our own critic Cody Allen voicing displeasure with it. I personally found the film akin to that of a dehydrated fever dream, as if you're continually out of reach of hydrolytes and salvation, so instead you have to resort to drinking dog shit filled water and maybe chowing down on local rodents to get by. It's sweaty, filthy, and at times, oddly representative of what it feels like to visit Margaret River and Yallingup after downing too many bevvies at Beerfarm. And yeah, those comparisons to Ted Kotcheff's flick feel apt given its presentation of masculinity, but to me it's more like a West Aussie version of the seventies thriller The Swimmer.

There's something really sweaty about The Surfer, a mystery embedded in a world of mean and mad folks who each have a sly streak of cruelty, wrapped up in that familiar Aussie friendliness. I was never sure where Lorcan Finnegan and writer Thomas Martin was taking me, but I was bloody happy to be dragged along in the process. There's a risk taking mindset to The Surfer, one that pushes at the boundaries of what Aussie films or stories can be. If this is where Aussie stories told from non-Aussie perspectives might be going, then strap me in, I'm on for the whole ride.

As Western Australia ramps up to becoming a full throttled filmmaking state with the 2026 arrival of our first 'film studios', it then became a good time to touch base with surrogate sandgroper Robert Connolly, this time wearing a producer hat, to talk about his role in bringing The Surfer to WA shores, what his experience of having made films like Paper Planes and Blueback brings to a major production like this one, and additionally, what his producing presence means for filmmakers, actors, and Aussie creatives.

It's always a delight to be able to talk to Robert, just as it's been a delight to be able to see the global reaction to a film like The Surfer. If you're in Australia, you'll have your chance to catch the film on the big screen - just how it's meant to be seen - from 15 May, before it heads onto Stan. later in the year.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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Jacob Richardson's feature film debut The Aegean sees the Queensland based writer-director embrace the Grecian story of a widower, Hector (Costas Mandylor), who finds himself in the orbit of Khristos (Light), a refugee who finds himself in the waters of the Aegean Sea. As Khristos finds himself becoming embedded in Hector's life, he discovers an unexpected bond that will give him a sense of place and purpose that he was missing.

In the above interview, Jacob talks about the personal connection to the narrative of The Aegean, how he worked with Costas Mandylor and Light to create their characters, and what it was like working with cinematographer Oliver Hay and composer Allister Harrison on the film. Jacob also talks about his journey from being a film critic to a filmmaker, and how each creative endeavour impacts on the other.

The Aegean is released by Radioactive Pictures in Australian cinemas on 16 May 2025. Check your local cinema for screening dates.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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With her essential website Infinite-Women.com, Allison Tyra has built a deep database that contains more than 6000 biographies from around the world and throughout history, documenting the biographies of women who have made a mark in history. Her debut book, Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work, expands on the database within Infinite Women and explores the stories of over 600 women who have had their work or achievements be overlooked, misattributed, or stolen, ultimately leaving their legacy as an uncredited and unacknowledged one.

In the following interview, Allison talks about her creative process of documenting the biographies of women from around the world and throughout history while also talking about the cataloguing and database work that she undertakes to track the growing stories of the women she has documented. Allison then also talks about some of the entries that can be found within Uncredited, and what her future book plans are.

With Infinite Women and Uncredited, Allison has built a deep database that has become a useful resource, one that's backed by an extensive catalogue of podcasts that feature in depth discussions about many of the women featured on the website.

Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work is available to order now. Visit Infite-Women.com for more details.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.

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Kelly Schilling's feature debut film With or Without You is the powerful and impactful story of a mother, Sharon (Marta Dusseldorp) and a daughter, Chloe (Melina Vidler), who are forced to navigate the complicated reality of alcohol addiction, an affliction that Sharon uses to manage her anxiety alongside Valium and men. For Chloe, the man in her life, an ex-boyfriend, turns violent and aggressive, inflicting abuse on her by burning down her caravan, destroying her life savings and home in the process. In a bid to get to some kind of safety and sanctuary, Sharon and Chloe head on the road, meeting Dalu (Albert Mwangi) on the way, a West African man who is looking for work in the Australian countryside.

With or Without You had its world premiere at the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival, the end result of a decades long journey for Kelly Schilling, who has written the script and directed the film from a lived-in perspective. It's that script, which has changed over the years into the text that it is today, that gives Marta, Melina, Albert, and the chorus of characters, the chance to bring light to a truth that exists within Australia, namely, the impact of alcohol addiction and the trauma left from partner abuse.

Yet, lest I paint this film as being a dark, dramatic affair, Kelly knows to imbue these moments of difficulty and darkness with aspects of lightness and laughter. The bond that Sharon and Chloe have with one another feels lived in and real, with Marta and Melina bringing the mother-daughter relationship to life with a charm and level of cheekiness that means the film, at times, feels like a mirror. Schilling's script and direction understands the shades of life and the way that moments of joy can break through hours of pain and darkness, giving way to hope and the possibility of a better life along the way.

In the following interview, Kelly talks about that balance of storytelling on a script level, what it was like working with Marta to build the character of Sharon, and what it means to tell a story from a lower socio-economic perspective, one that is so often written by people who live comfortably outside the societal place of being from a lower socio-economic background.

With or Without You is out in Australian cinemas from 8 May, just in time for Mother's Day. It is a powerful, impressive film about mother-daughter bonds, one that's left a mark on me and that I have thought about long after that initial screening in Adelaide in 2024.

Cinematographer Michael Tessari recently won an Award of Distinction from the Australian Cinematographer's Society.

For those who are interested in the film, I also recommend checking out my interview with Albert Mwangi, which was released earlier in 2025, where he talks about working on With or Without You, as well as his work on another film which screened at Adelaide, Make it Look Real.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your film loving friends.

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One of the more exciting news points in recent weeks has been the announcement of the new First Nations initiative Damulgurra Stories. Founded by Larrakia man Cian Mungatj McCue, of Moogie Down Productions, and award-winning casting director and producer Sarah Price of Castaway NT, Damulgurra Stories aims to transform the way productions work with First Nations cast, crew and creatives both on and off screen— providing resources, protocols and training rooted in cultural integrity, collaboration and empowerment.

Andrew caught up with Cian and Sarah ahead of the launch of Damulgurra Stories at Screen Forever on the Gold Coast this week to talk about the foundation of Damulgurra Stories, the change in First Nations storytelling in Australia, and how young and emerging First Nations talent can engage in storytelling.

For more information, read the press release here.

If you want to find out more about the work we do on The Curb, then head over to TheCurb.com.au, or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your film loving friends. 

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Thanks for listening to this chat with Cian and Sarah. For other interviews and reviews, visit theCurb.com.au. Please rate, review, and share this interview with your film loving friends. We hope they like it as much as you have. I'll see you on the next one.

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