My Sister

It took a few viewings to fully appreciate "My Sister". It's one of those films that gets better and deeper once you let it sink in. The film is breathtakingly beautiful, as far as the cinematography goes. I wouldn't even think about calling this a "great looking short film". It's simply great cinematography, by any standard. It's up there with Bertolucci's great "Last Emperor" and Wong Kar Wai's "In The Mood For Love". If you enjoy lush cinematography, strikingly composed frames and elegant camera moves, this film is for you.

Ironically, the visuals are SO majestic that one is distracted by them upon first viewing the film. Which is why the film deserves multiple viewings.

My only two problems with the film are the music, which I felt was a little weak (both in terms of orchestration/arrangement and simply in terms of variety- the same theme is repeated over and over again) and the Italian butcher who embodies the stereotype a little too enthusiastically.

Other than that it's a wonderful film by a gifted filmmaker who should seriously consider insuring his eyes for a lot of $$$.

....and contains a horridly heavy-handed message about the importance of retaining cultural identity while living in a foreign land.

Wonderful performance by Stella is the only thing that holds the film together. Uniformly wooden performances from the rest of the cast and some really pretentious cinematography that adds nothing to the story. Not to mention the worst music score i've heard in years.

This film is nowhere near as good as the film-maker likes to think it is and I am not a fan of stick your fingers down your throat melodrama, but hey, a lot of film-illiterates in the audience seemed to like it.

Apparently I have to submit 10 lines of text for my comments to be accepted and for a man of many words when it comes to film, i think it shows just how little i thought of this short that i couldn't muster up those required 10 lines. (oh, now i have!)

p.s. And hold on, I just came back and saw someone comparing the visuals to Bertolucci and Wong Kar-Wai, oh dear!!! get some perspective!!! Little over-board don't you think??? Both those film-makers have an extraordinarily tight method behind everything that appears on screen, something which is completely neglected by this film-maker.

OK..so it's not Wong karwai or bertolucci...but it's heart is not bad.

it's well shot, simply designed and the choices are designed for the maximum emotional impact. It reminds me of Spielberg or Ron Howard's take on Asian cinema....the little girl is great, but her performance too monitored for emotional impact in my opinion. In some ways the politics of the film was less smug and pretentious than the Cannes competition film "Closer" that was also in the same screening.

the lighting is a bit too over the top at times -- as is the grand scale of the shots -- but nevertheless it's consistently handled and in my opinion, neither cloying or completely distasteful.

whoever gave the scathing review...I think you are being slightly unfair. The politics of the film is not bad...especially when compared with some other recent Australian shorts such as "Heartworm" and that one with the guy from Secret Life of Us "house of cards? names" that was playing at Melbourne film festival shorts.