There’s a coruscating alchemy at work in OF AN AGE, arguably one of the best films to be released this year.
The magic is in the chemistry of the cast, the transmutation of script to screen by writer director editor, Goran Stolevski, and the detailed textures in the production design from cinematography to wardrobe.
OF AN AGE – the title is a play on words – begins during the Summer of 1999 in blue-collar Watsonia, where 17-year-old Serbian immigrant Kol is preparing for the Australian Dance finals, imagining himself a real Tony Manero with all the Travolta moves, penchant and pazzaz.
Suddenly, he receives a distress call from his dance partner, Ebony, who has woken up on an unfamiliar beach in Altona after a big night out. She’s bummed out in a phone booth on the other side of the city.
In a frantic attempt to make it to the finals on time, Kol enlists the help of Ebony’s older brother, Adam, to do a fast and furious drive across town.
But Kol and Adam get stuck in summer traffic and the tyranny of distance married to the sands of time evaporates all hope of getting to the exam.
However, the chance rescue mission extends their time together and they discover they have more in common than they first thought. Inside the car, conversation flows about all kinds of things, including literature – Borges, Kafka and Dickens – and music. It’s a conversation that kindles an unexpected and intense romance.
A decade later, at Ebony’s nuptials – the best wedding prep since Muriel’s – the pair meet for a bittersweet reunion.
Elias Anton as Kol Hattie Hook as Ebony and Thom Green as Adam are all exceptional in their roles,
Under Stolevski’s sensitive direction, they each dig into a single compact human and excavate feelings the size of a universe. The inspired use of the academy ratio, being smaller and tighter, allows the frame to be more intimate.
OF AN AGE is a small miracle of a film, a marvellous marvel that will seduce and stay with you long after the final credits.
