Coming Soon
CELIA
1989
Director
Ann Turner
Starring
Rebecca Smart
Nicholas Eadie
Mary-Anne Fahey
Victoria Longley
Alexander Hutchinson
Adrian Mitchell
Runtime
103 MINUTES
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A movie to curse your anti-communist enemies.
In 1950s Australia, after 9-year-old Celia hears the disturbing fairy tale, "The Hobyahs" in school, it colors her interpretation of her social and political reality. Rampant conservatism contaminates childhood innocence, turning Celia’s classmates into analogs of their bigoted parents. Celia’s only solace against her bullies and tyrant of a father is her new neighbors, the Tanners—communist party members who were uprooted from their last town for their political views—and the dream of having her very own pet rabbit. As Melbourne’s conservative leadership plans a policy to eliminate the rabbit population that is desolating the crops, and unofficially begins wiping out socialist affiliates with red-scare tactics, tensions have hit a boiling point. Celia and her new comrades the Tanners link arms against these and other enemies of childhood joy by dawning the only weapons they can: the dark magik of adolescent payback. Across the landscape of a vast, desolate pit hidden in the woods behind the suburbs, the neighborhood children reenact what they see at home in deeply unsettling games of pretend war, kidnappings, torture, blood oaths and incantations of “DEATH, DEATH, DEATH.” CELIA slips easily between airy whimsy and earthly, ancient evil in a one of a kind blend of fairytale witchcraft and naturalistic coming-of-age drama.
Ann Turner's award-winning film paints a disquieting picture of innocence trying to make sense of the harsh and complex world around her through escape into dark fantasy. Like Víctor Erice’s SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE or Guillermo del Toro’s spiritual successor PAN’S LABYRINTH, CELIA follows in the tradition of youthful reverie and red-scare-escapist fantasy. Having been siloed into the horror section of video stores straight from its voyage across the Pacific, CELIA was for a long time a victim of mis-genrefication and was not given the arthouse cred it deserved. Alongside the work of Kier-la Janisse and Severin Films, who brought CELIA out of the shadows of non-anamorphic video and into outstanding Blu-ray brilliance in the collection ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR, The Beacon hopes to give CELIA its due moment on the big screen.
FOR FANS OF: OVER THE GARDEN WALL, dreaming an impossible dream and performing it into reality, the periwinkle-blue of shadows at dusk, WATERSHIP DOWN, handmade voodoo dolls, LABYRINTH, demonic rituals with the homies, the particular joy found in communist solidarity, a little stream in a little forest and Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
In 1950s Australia, after 9-year-old Celia hears the disturbing fairy tale, "The Hobyahs" in school, it colors her interpretation of her social and political reality. Rampant conservatism contaminates childhood innocence, turning Celia’s classmates into analogs of their bigoted parents. Celia’s only solace against her bullies and tyrant of a father is her new neighbors, the Tanners—communist party members who were uprooted from their last town for their political views—and the dream of having her very own pet rabbit. As Melbourne’s conservative leadership plans a policy to eliminate the rabbit population that is desolating the crops, and unofficially begins wiping out socialist affiliates with red-scare tactics, tensions have hit a boiling point. Celia and her new comrades the Tanners link arms against these and other enemies of childhood joy by dawning the only weapons they can: the dark magik of adolescent payback. Across the landscape of a vast, desolate pit hidden in the woods behind the suburbs, the neighborhood children reenact what they see at home in deeply unsettling games of pretend war, kidnappings, torture, blood oaths and incantations of “DEATH, DEATH, DEATH.” CELIA slips easily between airy whimsy and earthly, ancient evil in a one of a kind blend of fairytale witchcraft and naturalistic coming-of-age drama.
Ann Turner's award-winning film paints a disquieting picture of innocence trying to make sense of the harsh and complex world around her through escape into dark fantasy. Like Víctor Erice’s SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE or Guillermo del Toro’s spiritual successor PAN’S LABYRINTH, CELIA follows in the tradition of youthful reverie and red-scare-escapist fantasy. Having been siloed into the horror section of video stores straight from its voyage across the Pacific, CELIA was for a long time a victim of mis-genrefication and was not given the arthouse cred it deserved. Alongside the work of Kier-la Janisse and Severin Films, who brought CELIA out of the shadows of non-anamorphic video and into outstanding Blu-ray brilliance in the collection ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR, The Beacon hopes to give CELIA its due moment on the big screen.
FOR FANS OF: OVER THE GARDEN WALL, dreaming an impossible dream and performing it into reality, the periwinkle-blue of shadows at dusk, WATERSHIP DOWN, handmade voodoo dolls, LABYRINTH, demonic rituals with the homies, the particular joy found in communist solidarity, a little stream in a little forest and Brothers Grimm fairy tales.