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Lucid dreaming
After migrating from Cyprus at the age of fifteen, ANNA KANNAVA has cut a highly personal path through the black boxes of Melbourne's theatre scene. She now comes up with a dreamy, singular and defiantly un-commercial debut feature - DREAMS FOR LIFE. FILMINK's JULIAN SHAW speaks to the director about summer sex and the security of fiction.
Dreams For Life could fairly be described as a mosaic- unraveling in jagged pieces with tender little centres, it has the formal subtlety of poetry (admittedly undone at times by the great bulk of voice-over.) Dreams also has a clear desire to appeal on sub-conscious levels that stands it apart from other low-budget Australian features, if not from the zeitgeist of the international film festival scene.
The story of a single woman approaching 40 and dabbling in a May/September romance with the young half-brother of an ex (Dai Paterson) is moody, spiked with emotion and earnestly literate. For writer/director Anna Kannava, clearly aspiring to Paul Cox's formula of wordiness and whimsy, the concept of using seasons to steer the moods of her film had always been the schematic ace up the sleeve.
“Each season seems to affect me in its own distinct way,"¯ the still Melbourne-based Kannava offers. “I figured in winter you want someone to warm you up, in spring someone to fall in love with and in summer someone to make love to."¯ Kannava has been steadily building towards a feature film from a young age, accruing a backlog of tiny and delicious moments that she now loads into one cohesive story.
Many aspiring Australian filmmakers are masters of the short film trade, an unwieldy commercial format, and Kannava seems keen to move on. “I like details; I like to go deeply into layers, themes and characters so I need the time to get there. My work is personal in that I write about emotions I know very well. As I always try to find the best way to tell a story I hope to be able to continue pushing the boundaries"¯
Kannava is not inclined to revisit the terrain of the documentary form anytime soon - she sees her AFI winning doco The Butler more as a calling card than a statement of intentions. “The truth is I'm a fiction lover. I like drama that is raw like documentary but 'reality' on film is too unsettling for me. Life is hard enough. I prefer to share someone's expression of what it is to be human through the escape and security of fiction."¯
She now gives the scoop on lead actor Maria Mercedes. “How often in this country does an actor with ethnic looks and especially one over a certain age get to play an interesting role? And on top of that Maria saw her life mirrored in my story. People ask me if Dreams For Life is autobiographical. The truth is, it's more Maria's story than mine. I was making up a character - someone like Maria, an artist of Greek heritage who tries to fit in to the rebellious culture of her times and as a result cuts herself off from her roots and the world. Plus Maria is so sexy. There was no doubt in our minds that a younger man would fall for her. We didn't even ask her to audition. I had seen her work before and knew she was smart and open to things. But of course now I tease her that she only got the part because we were desperate."¯
Dreams For Life will be screening at the Valhalla cinema in Glebe (166 Glebe Point Road) as part of the Greek Festival on Wednesday 27th April. Bookings should be made on (02) 9660 8050.
