AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Maria
Olivier Panier | 2024 | 9m | Belgium | International
Manuella wakes up after a drunken evening. To her great surprise, Maria disappeared. Panicked and hungover, she sets out to search for him through the town of Carpentras.
Credits
Director & Writer
Olivier Panier
Cast
Isabelle Anciaux
Review
Written by Tom Venus
Flinders University Bachelor of Creative Arts (Screen) Student
The titular Maria turns out to be a goat, and owner Manuella rises after a big night to search for him through the Belgian town of Carpentras. Flashbacks to the night before take the form of vivid, bulged shots that represent Maria's gaze as he views the humans around him party.
The structure of the story feels like a flat circle, with a relatively linear path that ends in Manuella finding her goat. Of course, if this is the aim of the film, it isn't a bad thing, and makes for a perfectly agreeable nine minutes.