THE PLAINS
a film by David Easteal
FEATURE PRESENTATION
JUNE 24, 2023 • 3 PM
@ LIGHT HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
(1800 ARGYLE STREET, HALIFAX)
2022 / AUSTRALIA / 180 mins
The Plains is the astonishing first feature from Australian filmmaker David Easteal, and much of its blindsidingly moving 180 minutes are viewed from the back of a Hyundai somewhere along Melbourne’s Monash Freeway.
Composed primarily of eleven long shots captured over the course of a year, and inspired by the real-life carpool of the filmmaker and star Andrew Rakowski, The Plains tracks Andrew over a series of commutes from a legal office in the suburbs to his home in the city centre. Sometimes he’s joined by his colleague (played by Easteal himself), with whom he develops an understated kinship through unravelling discussions on marriage, his ailing mother, and his desire to spend more time in his country home on Victoria’s western plains.
The result is a monumental work of patient and assured slow-burn storytelling: a reminder of cinema’s capacity to find beauty in the dead moments that make up so much of modern life, and in the countless acquaintances whose inner lives we can never truly know.
—Evan Bower
TRAILER
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
David Easteal
David Easteal is a filmmaker who lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
David’s films have screened widely at venues and festivals, including at the Rotterdam, New York, BFI London, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mar del Plata, São Paulo Mostra, Ghent and Torino film festivals, the Centre Pompidou (as part of Cinéma du Réel), QAGOMA (as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art) and TIFF Cinematheque, amongst others. His work has been written about in publications including Cinema Scope, Film Comment, Cahiers du Cinéma, Iskusstvo Kino, and Libération.
David studied law and literature at the University of Melbourne. In addition to filmmaking, he practises as a barrister at the Victorian Bar.