MELBOURNE Two personalities at utter cross-purposes are claustrophobically tucked inside a dimly lit interior in David Pulbrooks low-budget hostage drama Last Dance. Ratcheting up the tension are top-notch performances from veteran actress Julia Blake (Innocence, Human Touch) as an elderly Holocaust survivor and handsome up-and-comer Firass Dirani (Underbelly) as the Palestinian terrorist who takes her captive in her own apartment after a botched suicide bombing at a local synagogue.
Co-funded by the Melbourne International Film Festivals Premiere Fund, this carefully put together, humanistic thriller grapples intelligently with a hot-button international issue. The Australian production, Pulbrooks first outing as a director after a solid editing career, can expect a good festival run following its MIFF bow and arthouse crowds should appreciate its simmering intensity when it releases domestically later this year.
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The clanging of trams in the opening scene marks the setting as multicultural Melbourne, but the vexing complexities of the conflict in the Middle East resonate globally, as does the ability of compassion to rise above all. Sadiq Mohammad (Dirani) is on the run after fleeing an inner-city bombing attack that has felled many innocent people along with a fellow radical. As sirens wail and search helicopters buzz overhead, the gravely wounded young man bundles Jewish widow Ulah Lippman (Blake) into her home and prepares to hide out as he awaits instructions.
But the spirited elderly victim moves quickly through terror to indignation and disgust and so begins a battle of wills as the two set forward their opposing ideologies and argue over the meaning of the term soldier. Menacing at first, Sadiq reveals enough of himself to allow Mrs. Lippmans maternal instinct to take over when he collapses from his shrapnel wound and, rather than escaping, she nurses him back to health while fending off interest from the authorities and a meddlesome neighbor (Alan Hopgood).
A practically airtight screenplay, an eight-year-long collaboration between Pulbrook and first-time scripter Terence Hammond, allows a supremely unlikely bond to develop organically, with revelations about their individual pasts revealing shared sorrows. It is to the credit of the two leads, who carry what is essentially a two-hander, and to Pulbrooks shrewd camerawork that the film remains dramatically absorbing to the end.
Venue: Melbourne International Film Festival
Production company: Ulah Films
Cast: Julia Blake, Firass Dirani, Danielle Carter
Director: David Pulbrook
Screenwriters: David Pulbrook, Terence Hammond
Producer: Antony I. Ginnane
Executive producers: William Fayman, Ann Lyons, Peter deRauch
Director of photography: Lee Pulbrook
Production designer: Les Binns
Costume designer: Louise McCarthy
Music: Michael Allen
Editor: Phil Reid
Sales: Becker Film Group
No rating, 90 minutes
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