At a special Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) media event highlighting the next generation of talented Melbourne filmmakers – Thomas Wright (The Stranger), Alena Lodkina (Petrol) and Goran Stolveski (Of an Age & You Won’t Be Alone) – we heard from the three trailblazers about their new buzz-worthy films and how they fit into the Australian film landscape today.

Alena Lodkina: “Petrol”

 

Writer-director Alena Lodkina moved with her family from St. Peterburg, Russia to Sydney, Australia when she was only 13. In her 20s, she moved to Melbourne to pursue a career in independent film and her directorial debut, Strange Colours, screened at MIFF in 2018, after Lodkina graduated from their Accelerator Lab program. Her second film, Petrol, a recipient of MIFF’s Premiere Fund, stars Nathalie Morris (Bump) as Eva, a student filmmaker scouting locations for her university project when she crosses paths with the enigmatic Mia (Hannah Lynch). An intense friendship soon forms and as they become more entwined, so does the line between reality and fantasy.

How much was inspired by your own experiences as a film student?

Specifically, during that period, I’ve been very moved and influenced by female friends, by works of art, by my family and by living in Melbourne. And also, with that student life of living in share houses. I wanted the film to be a study of a place and time that comes with this kind of relationship I’ve experienced and seen some of my friends’ experiences.

What do you explore in this kind of friendship?

It’s a time when you are poorest and open to the world with a kind of inequality that I very much cherish and celebrate in the film. Even if it’s difficult for Eva to be so open, I like that people can come into your life and take hold of your imagination and influence you so profoundly. Suddenly you can model yourself on them and they can have direct influence on how you shape your appearance, even if it’s just your superficial way of dressing or styling your hair. I find that process of becoming and exchanging such an integral part of being human and that was something I wanted to express in the film without making a judgment on.

Do you think of yourself more as an Eva or a Mia?

The film was very playful with those being controlled and being in control and seeing and being seen. I think that we can be both in different times, and what I found fascinating is that while you may perceive yourself as Eva because it’s easier to identify with that character, but the film is about how things can swap and change and shift because of one relationship.

Were you always using your imagination growing up?

Yes, we lived in an ugly apartment in Russia, and I remember having a friend on another floor and I’d get dropped off there every day and we’d get together and lock ourselves in a room and create a utopia. I loved that two girls could spend the day together, creating an imaginary world. We often lose a little bit of that spirit as adults so I wanted my character in the film to try and celebrate that and that’s what Mia is all about, as elusive and difficult as she can be, she’s a performer who really stands for her ideals.

How do you describe this new wave of Australian filmmakers?

I think there’s a real desire to process what is Australian cinema, and what are we now and what place can we take in the world’s cultural dialogue. I think there’s a real desire to find style and ways to film cities and coastlines and houses and things that we see that maybe haven’t so much been portrayed in Australian cinema traditionally. I certainly think there’s a quite specific flavor to this moment. We all know New York movies and Paris movies and Rome movies, but what is a Melbourne movie?

How did you answer that?

I asked my Petrol crew to watch the films of Edward Yang (a brilliant auteur who ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave), including his 1985 film, Taipei Story, and The Terrorisers (1985). That was a moment when Taiwanese filmmakers were really finding a way to film Taiwan and capture the American influence and the local history and the commercial architecture. They were beautiful films but unexpected in the geometry, so they were great examples of urban movies I wanted to follow.