Director of Photography: Shelley Farthing-Dawe
Olivia is creator of the life-like Shinjoi (Soulmate) robots, but after the destruction of a prototype she begins to question the nature of love and loss. Making a believable science fiction short film is hard. Directed by Sarah-Jane Woulahan (Acts of God), it’s refreshing to see such striking science-fiction visuals in a shorts program.
Cinematographer Shelley Farthing-Dawe presents a stark, crisp world inhabited by soft and fragile humans. The premise alone is enough to create high tension in its futuristic setting. Farthing-Dawe was able to very successfully and beautifully create an ultra-modern world with minimum visual effects by altering mundane human perception.
Receiving its premiere screening at the festival, the film was produced by Anna Kojevnikov and Sally Storey. A Terrible Beauty is also one of four films selected to be made through Screen Australia’s ‘HotShots’ program.
Reviewed at the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).
By James Cunningham.