By Travis Johnson
Dots, a 24 minute short film by Polish-Australian writer and director Eryk Lenartowicz, will screen in competition during the 71st Cannes Film Festival next month. the film was one of only 17 projects selected out of 2,400 submissions to screen in the Cinéfondation competition, and the only Australian film picked.
Produced by Rebecca Janek during Eryk’s Master of Screen Arts at the Australian Film Radio and Television School in 2017, this is the first film to be selected from the school in 19 years.
Development Executive and Producer at Found at Sea Janek, tells us, “I was immediately drawn to this project because of Eryk’s unique voice and use of a humour in the tragi-comedy genre which I hadn’t seen in Australia in recent years. Set to the backdrop of a small Australian town, Eryk delivered a hilarious film about death, mortality and obsession.”
Shot in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, Dots stars Alan Dukes (Wake in Fright), Lucy Bell (Fighting Season), and Heather Mitchell (A Place to Call Home). the film is described as “…an absurdist comedy about a small Australian town where people start dying after the arrival of a mysterious stranger. Despite this, the local police officer is too preoccupied by his dream Mercedes to pay attention to the deaths surrounding him.”
Lenartowicz and Jarnek are traveling to Cannes next month. “So far the Cannes experience has been a beautiful and intense ride,” the director says. “It has certainly boosted my confidence as a young director, confirming that the angle of narration I am interested in is appreciated by one of the most prestigious film festivals on the planet. It has encouraged me to keep going and continue taking risks.”
