Wendy
17 The Octagon, Dunedin, Otago
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Something completely different from the director of Beasts of the Southern Wild (NZIFF12), this swirling, kaleidoscopic take on the adventures of Peter Pan and Wendy in Neverland is uniquely for both mature kids and wide-eyed adults.
The eight long years since Benh Zeitlin’s magical first film landed countless awards and four Oscar nominations have created both buzz and speculation, owing to the mythic status a project by a director of Zeitlin’s instant acclaim deserves. His adaptation of the classic J.M. Barrie tale, at last complete, is every bit the original, defiantly alternative reimagining we expected – and just maybe, is destined for cult status.
Centred on a hardscrabble Louisiana family, the film introduces young Wendy (Devin France), whose obsession with a mysterious boy seen leaping between railcars compels her to jump aboard a train with her twin brothers, where they meet the one and only Peter Pan (Yashua Mack). Whisked off to a strange volcanic island, the kids revel in an untamed landscape that promises they’ll never grow old. Dancing between images of Disney-like wonder, scenes of salty mischief-making (reminiscent of The Florida Project) and darker encounters that may frighten younger viewers, it’s a film that plays to its own beat, rebelling against the conventional wisdom of what a Peter Pan story should look, sound and feel like, to be precisely the thing it wants to be.
[An] idiosyncratic and deeply affecting reinvention of the tale of Peter Pan… filled with metaphor and wisdom and raw emotion. — Rafer Guzmán, Newsday
https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/wendy-review-1.42536205
FILMMAKER BIO
Benh Zeitlin is a writer, director and composer based in New Orleans. His feature debut, Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), received the Camera d’Or at Cannes and Academy Award-nominations for writing, direction, best film and best actress. He has composed music for his own films and others, including Brimstone & Glory (NZIFF18).
CREDITS
Wendy
USA
2020
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Producers: Becky Glupczynski, Dan Janvey, Paul Mezey, Josh Penn
Screenplay: Benh Zeitlin, Eliza Zeitlin
Photography: Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Editors: Affonso Gonçalves, Scott Cummings
Production designer: Eliza Zeitlin
Costume designer: Stacy Jansen
Music: Dan Romer
With: Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Ahmad Cage, Krzysztof Meyn, Romyri Ross, Lowell Landes, Kevin Pugh, Shay Walker
Festivals: Sundance 2020
112 minutes
Censors rating M
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