The internet trailer for Corroboree. IFC will have the film on demand starting on February 11th.
A corroboree is a boisterous social occasion in Australian Aboriginal culture, meant to celebrate significant events requiring acknowledgement through sacred rites.
Living out his last days at an idyllic country retreat, a legendary theatre director (Ian Scott) decides to restage the key moments of his life. He does this in part to let the actresses devoted to him find some comfort in his death, and in part to memorialize himself.
The actresses assume characters from his past, beginning with the mother cradling her son. Through a detailed recorded message, the director has recruited a pretty young man named Conor (newcomer Conor O’Hanlon) to play himself, and instructed him to appear in various rooms at various times.
Conor gets off the bus with a rucksack and little idea of what awaits; we encounter the setting through his eyes. The first few scenes are awkward, with the women eager to mentor but still distant. They occasionally pull out the director’s writings to help him and to move the scenes forward. When the cast is “offstage,” there are casual moments of eating and lounging in the parlour. Costumes begin to appear, the demands of the performance grow more intense, Conor’s acting becomes better. Soon revelations about the director’s subject, his sexuality and his plans for Conor emerge.
Corroboree is a strange wonder. The film exists in an unstable world between performance and reality, without feeling forced or overly theatrical. We are always on the lookout for an interpretive path through its enigmas, searching for clues to its elusive structure and significance.