Dov Kornits
Written and directed by actress turned filmmaker Romi Trower, and produced by Tristram Miall (Strictly Ballroom, The Black Balloon), the new Australian film, What If It Works? bowed internationally at the progressive Cinequest, which described the film as “a delightful journey filled with laughter and tears. Romantic, heartfelt, and endearing; you’d be crazy to miss it.”
The film went on to win Best Australian Independent Film at the Gold Coast Film Festival.
Filmed in the colourful, street art filled laneways of Melbourne, the rom-com with a difference charts the unlikely courtship of Adrian (Luke Ford), a tech-nerd with OCD, and Grace (Anna Samson from TV’s Winners & Losers and Hunters), an artist with multiple personality disorder. The film also features Brooke Satchwell, Wade Briggs, Eddie Baroo, Melanie Zanetti and Kaarin Fairfax.
Romi Trower has been acting on screen for more than a decade, with roles on TV’s The Secret Life of Us, Kick and Offspring, and recently turned to directing with a short film and theatre work.
“My interest in telling this story is born of my personal experiences,” she said in a statement. “My older brother has a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and my aunt is a psychiatrist who specialises in Dissociative Identity Disorder. I wanted to share some of their stories, with kindness and honesty.”
What If It Works? will open CinefestOZ on Wednesday, August 23, 2017.
Can’t wait to see it! Loved your short films
Wonderful to see a film that represents people with mental illness in in a humanistic, thoughtful and humorous light. Well done Romi Trower