by Dov Kornits
Her previous short film Tangles & Knots premiered at SXSW, and now, eight years later, one of Australia’s most exciting filmmakers, Renée Marie Petropoulos’ new highly personal drama Souvenir will also launch at the popular Texas festival.
Set in the summer of 2008, Souvenir centres on Keira (Tanzyn Crawford), on holiday with her family and seemingly platonic girlfriend Zoe (Emily Grant). When a photo is taken by Zoe, it sets off emotionally complex series of events and reactions for the girls.
We asked Petropoulos some questions about Souvenir ahead of its premiere at SXSW.
What are you expecting and hoping for from the SXSW 2026 bow?
“I feel really honoured to be welcomed back to SXSW with a second short film. SXSW is such a tremendous festival, and they have always championed emerging filmmakers. I’m so excited to get the chance to share Souvenir on such a renowned global stage, my producer, Yingna Lu, and I are attending alongside our partners and also one of our stunning leads, Emily Grant who plays Zoe.
“In the years since I last screened, I’ve grown my slate and developed scripts that are now market ready, which I definitely didn’t have back in 2018. One of these projects is the film Keep Walking, which is the feature attached to Souvenir. This time around, I’m also keen to meet USA based production companies, international distributors, agents and managers.”
The film reminded us of Aftersun due to its period setting and female lens. Can you discuss the inspiration, real or otherwise, for the story we see in Souvenir? Are there any particular cinematic inspirations for the film?
“Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun is definitely a huge reference for this film and for my work overall. Aftersun is just so profoundly intimate, filled with raw, aching longing and memory. Other tonal references for Souvenir include Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex and the lush claustrophobic world of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter.
“With Souvenir, I wanted to explore a toxic sapphic relationship in all its intricacies and how easily intimate boundaries can be crossed at such a tender age. As a filmmaker, I wanted to explore this nuanced power dynamic through Keira’s perspective by creating a suffocating intimacy between her and Zoe that felt truthful, tactile and unsettling.
“Souvenir hones into Keira’s point of view with a claustrophobic 4:3 ratio, warm tones and a camera that mimics the girl’s dizzying intimacy and unnerving stillness. Sound was another way to ground us in Keira’s subjectivity. Thunder, roaring ocean waves, cicadas, kids screaming in the distance of the resort – the soundtrack to a typical Australian holiday becomes heightened and suffocating for Keira.
“Setting the film in 2008 added a layer of nostalgia but also danger to the story. I remember this distinct time as a teenager, uploading entire photo albums on social media after every hang out and feverishly curating our lives online. Who you were online was everything, especially as a closeted teenager.
“Souvenir was also a rather personal story to craft. Although it is a proof of concept short to complement my feature film Keep Walking, the short really took on a life of its own. At the time of writing Souvenir, I had just fully come out to my family and had just started dating women, so I was dealing with a lot of new relationship dynamics for the first time. During the writing process, my producer, Yingna Lu, and I also sprinkled memories from our own relationship experiences to further deepen the story. These were raw moments of yearning, of violation, of confusion, shame, gaslighting and still seeking approval.”
What does the camera represent in the film?
“Throughout Souvenir, the camera is a sort of weapon. The blinding flash and soft shutter sounds intrude on some of the film’s most intimate scenes. Through the film we see our main character Keira, a young, closeted queer woman transformed into a performer for the camera. While her partner Zoe weaponises the camera, Keira’s parents use it to carefully curate their family holiday and in a vulnerable moment Keira even turns a camera on herself.
“These point and shoot cameras were so big during those early years of Myspace and Facebook – they had a stranglehold on teenagers who were beginning to curate their lives online without really thinking about the consequences. Ultimately, despite being a period piece, the film couldn’t be more relevant to today.”
How was the film financed?
“We were lucky to be one of three teams selected for the inaugural Screen NSW Short to Feature Fast Track Initiative from 2023, which gave us the opportunity to shoot a short proof of concept film and develop an accompanying feature film. This paired with crowd funding support via the Australian Cultural Fund really made this film possible. Initiatives like this are so important for emerging filmmakers in Australia.”
It’s a proof of concept for a feature version, how so?
“Ultimately, Souvenir acts as a proof of concept to my semi-autobiographical feature film, Keep Walking, that I’ve had in development for years as a writer. The feature is also set in the 2000s on an island resort where a young teenage protagonist experiences sexual violence while on a family vacation, and then has to spend the next week stuck on the island with her family, her attacker, his girlfriend and a horde of partying teenagers. The film really explores the depths of what can happen when sexual trauma goes unaddressed and festers in the murky dark corners of paradise.
“Keep Walking is exactly the kind of film I’m drawn to making. It’s a complicated coming of age story that explores gender roles, wealth and privilege, sexual trauma and escapism all through a female lens. Souvenir captures much of the location, themes, teenage longing and time period set in the original feature. With the short, I was eager to centre the story around a different kind of breach of consent.”
Souvenir screens at SXSW on 13 and 16 March, more information here.
