‘Of an Age’ is the phrase we frequently use when talking to our editor although usually its, ‘You’re of an age where you should know better!’ as we pick him up after being released from police custody on Saturday morning after another big out at The Nags Head. Here the title refers to Kol (Elias Anton) , 17 year old Serbian immigrant in Australia and the film starts back in 1999. A competitive ball room dancer he gets a call from his dance partner Ebony (Hattie Hook) a flighty party girl who’s woken up with a hangover on the beach and rings him to pick her up. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem but he goes into a panic worried that he will miss the finals because of her care free lifestyle and has him running through Melbourne in a sparkly ballroom shirt like the aftermath of groom’s stag night.
But it’s her brother Adam (Thom Green) that he wants to help out as he has a car and agrees to collect Ebony. It’s their car journey that starts the roots of their romance with Kol not yet aware of his own sexuality its only in one throw away needle drop comment that Kol discovers that Adam is gay. Long comfortable in his sexuality it’s Adam who recognises that Kol is supressing who he really is and what develops from there over the next 25 hours is a burgeoning romance between the two which is destined to end almost immediately as Adam is leaving the following day for Argentina to study for a PhD. It’s the sort of excuse Boris Jonson would try and use but for Adam its true and the film pick up in 2010 with the pair meeting up once again
Of An Age as a coming of age story works well whatever your sexuality and how the characters have evolved years later is well defined with both leads turning in convincing performances. Writer- director reflects their state of mind well with the 1999 section especially in the road trip where a handheld camera with close of their faces captures the furtive glances whereas the 2010 section, the shorter part of the film, the shots are wider and without the shakiness of being handheld reflecting a more assured Kol. It’s an assured follow up film for Stolevski who first feature film’ You Wint be Alone’ earned much acclaim and it his future would seem assured and hopefully will broaden his genre horizon.
related feature:
related feature:
We have a lively chat with Goran Stolevski about the making of the film….
Here’s the Of An Age trailer……
