Maleny Community Centre

Ten years in the making, Bohemian Rhapsody is proving a huge popular success. The story of iconic British rock band Queen focusses on flamboyant front man Freddy Mercury. Rami Malek is striking as Mercury, an innovative and driven yet conflicted man who finds himself at odds with his band. A frenetic journey in which boundaries are pushed back, culminates in the famous Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985. The film has been praised for cinematography that makes ‘you…

Australian Film Festival is on at the Maleny Community Centre 8-10 March Jirga 7:15pm 8 March ($13 members/$16 non-members) MCC hall Backtrack Boys 1pm 9 March ($13 members/$16 non-members) MCC hall Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival Shorts 5pm (free) MCC hall Strange Colours 7:15pm 9 March ($13 members/$16 non-members) MCC hall, presented by director and festival special guest Alena Lodkina One Less God 10am 10 March ($13 members/$16 non-members) MCC hall Women in Black 2pm 10 March ($13 members/$16…

Emily Johnson is having problems with her DVR and calls customer service for help, only to find herself lost in the automated system. When she finally gets a live agent on the phone, she is transferred again and again. Will she finally get the help she needs? Country: USA Genre: Comedy Duration: 14 mins

Former Australian soldier, Mike Wheeler, returns to Afghanistan, seeking redemption from the family of a civilian man he killed during the war. Country: Australia Genre: Drama Duration: 78 mins Rating: M

An Australian Shakespeare fan with Down Syndrome sets off on a solo adventure to discover Tokyo in order to get away from his overbearing older brother and prove his independence. Along the way, he uses his knowledge of the Bard, his sketchbook and his wits to win the hearts of the people he meets. Country: Australia Duration: 21min

Milena travels to a remote opal mining community to see her estranged, ill father. Lost and alone, she falls into his bewildering world, where men escape society and share ideals of freedom. Soon, he doesn't want her to leave. Stuck in time, father and daughter try to mend their fractured bond, but their connection is fragile, like the strange, colourful gems he digs up from the earth. Country: Australia Genre: Drama Duration: 85min

In 2008, a band of young Islamic militants from Pakistan lands in Mumbai, their primary target, the iconic Taj Mahal hotel. With Indian forces unable to regain control, for 4 days the guests must battle to survive as the terrorists seek to drive them from hiding. The harrowing events that follow will come to be known as India's 9/11 and one of the most audacious terrorist attacks in history. Yet more than a tale of monsters and men, this is…

Ladies in Black is set in Sydney in the summer of 1959, against the backdrop of Australia's cultural awakening, breakdown of class structures, and liberation of women. It tells the coming-of-age story of suburban schoolgirl Lisa, who while waiting for her final high school exam results with dreams of going to the University of Sydney, takes a summer job at a large department store. Here she works side-by-side with a group of saleswomen who open her eyes to a world…

Polish director Pawel Pawlikoski who brought us Ida, this year won the Best Director Award at Cannes. Inspired by and dedicated to his parents, Cold War is an intimate love story of a couple who meet and later part behind the Iron Curtain of postwar Europe. The audience is taken on a journey lasting 15 years from rural Poland to urban East Berlin and from Paris to Yugoslavia in luscious black and white cinematography. It opens in Poland in the…

Three siblings return to their childhood paradise in the vineyards to farewell their dying father and sort out the succession of the family property, facing modern threats to traditional winemaking and accumulated debt. Poetic treatment of Jean, Jeremie and Juliette’s idyllic past and challenged present, intertwines with an evocative experience of grapes and wine: the look, the texture, the smell, the taste! Cinematography over changing seasons paints a panorama of vine-clad hills and wine-seeped interiors. Pio Marmai plays Jean, the…

Winner of the 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose Like Father, Like Son and After the Storm, have been screened here. Again he demonstrates insight into family relationships. In this case the family—children and adults—eke out a meagre living by shoplifting. Among other things, the film is a social realist perspective on the underside of affluent modern Japan. When the family takes in a girl who seems to have been abused and abandoned, complications arise. Full…

A talented teenager with leukaemia needs a blood transfusion to save his life. He and his Jehovah’s Witness family refuse this but under the ‘Children Act’ in the UK, they can be overruled by the state. Emma Thompson plays the sensitive but dispassionate and scrupulous judge who must decide. Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, the film is ‘urbane, understated . . . and impeccably interpreted by a superb cast’ making it ‘an unmitigated pleasure to watch’ (Washington Post).…

Renowned Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Past, The Salesman) moves to Spain to feature husband and wife team Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in this famly drama/thriller. Cruz plays Laura who has come to Spain for her sister’s wedding along with her teenage daughter Irene and young son Diego, while her wealthy husband Alejandro remains back home in Argentina. Irene is attracted to a boy who tells her that her mother, Laura, was deeply in love with Paco…