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bathing franky

BATHING FRANKY

Featuring a post-screening Q&A with the director.

2pm Saturday 28th July

Director: Owen Elliot

Producer: Michael Winchester

Writer: Michael Winchester

A young man dealing with his troubled past, is captivated by the fanciful and surreal world of a wildly, irrepressible older man and his decrepit yet compelling mother.

'With our imagination we make the world'

When Steve (Shaun Goss) is released from prison, he is unable to connect with his girlfriend Susie (Bree Desborough), as he is still haunted by his relationship with a fellow inmate. Taking a 'meals-on-wheels' job, he meets Rodney (Henri Szeps), a wildly irrepressible older man, who is the full time carer for his invalid mother Franky (Maria Venuti) who, when not confined to a wheelchair, gets about on her modified ride-on lawn mower.

Rodney is a "backyard magician" who loves to fly kites, tap dance, tell stories, juggle and speak French and Italian! And he brings the same vaudevillian exuberance to the way he "cares" for his mother, Franky. Rodney is torn between the love and the loyalty that he feels for his ailing and dependent mother on the one hand, and the desire to lead his own life. Steve is captivated by the older pair's extravagant world of make-believe and a close friendship between the men develops.

The story deals with the issues of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope; and the double edged sword of imagination and fantasy as a means for dealing with the harsher aspects of life and reality.

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