Petrol

Monday 27 March at 7pm

Petrol, Alena Lodkina, 2022, 95m
While scouting locations for a university project, Eva crosses paths with Mia; later, they meet again at a house party, and an intense friendship soon forms between the introverted student filmmaker and the inscrutable but magnetic performer. As the pair becomes ever more entwined, so does the supernatural begin to entangle with the everyday, revealing the cracks between memory and make-believe, reality and fantasy. All the while, Eva seeks to better understand her friend – and her own self – leading her deeper into the surreal rabbit hole that is Mia’s life.

While Alena Lodkina’s breakthrough and debut feature, Strange Colours was grounded in the form of observational realism, her latest, Petrol is assembled from loose fragments of reality: autobiographical notes, quotes from overhead conversations, played out on the field of Melbourne. Influenced by Rivette, Chytilova, Tarkovsky, and other directors, Lodkina embeds these fragments within a mesh of unstable images, symbolism and investigations into identity.

Introduced in-person by Alena Lodkina

Unrated 15+

With thanks to Arena Media.