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After tackling zombies (in the FIPRESCI Award-winning Undead, MIFF 2003) and vampires (Daybreakers), the Spierig Brothers take on time travel in this stylish, intelligent thriller.
Loosely based on the Robert A Heinlein sci-fi short All You Zombies, Predestination is the story of a temporal agent on the trail of a terrorist, in an intricate web of twists and secrets. Ethan Hawke carries much of the film with a nuanced performance as the time-travelling agent, backed by an on-form Noah Taylor as his enigmatic boss. Sarah Snook (These Final Hours, MIFF 2013), meanwhile, dazzles with a revelatory and intimate turn, lending both her character and the film an uncommon emotional weight.
Shot on location in and around Melbourne, Predestination offers a distinctive blend of sci-fi, noir and crime fiction with a Bukowskian streak. True to the Australian twins' directorial style, it investigates bigger questions – here, of destiny and identity – with wit and insight.
"An entrancingly strange time-travel saga … Predestination succeeds in teasing the brain and touching the heart." – Variety