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Presented in association with the Wheeler Centre, BBC First and Foxtel
In 2013, revered director Jane Campion created the award-winning TV series Top of the Lake, notable for 'being one of the first examples of a major filmmaker realizing the full potential of the 'peak TV' era…a staggering piece of long-form fiction.' (IndieWire).
In 2017, Top of the Lake: China Girl reacquaints us with the Golden Globe-winning actress Elisabeth Moss as Detective Robin Griffen, adding Gwendoline Christie and Academy Award Winner Nicole Kidman to a crime mystery story that finds Griffin recently returned to Sydney and trying to rebuild her life. When the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin discovers ‘China Girl’ didn’t die alone. Robin looks to the investigation to restore herself, but her problems are personal. Haunted by a daughter given up at birth, Robin desperately wants to find her, yet dreads revealing the truth of her conception. But her search to discover ‘China Girl’s’ identity will take her into the city’s darkest recesses and closer than she could have imagined to the secrets of her own heart.
'Top of the Lake is decidedly back in a major way.' (Hollywood Reporter).
After bingeing your way through the entire six episodes of the acclaimed series in its Australian Premiere at MIFF, come and join the series’ creative collaborators Jane Campion, Gerard Lee and Ariel Kleiman in conversation as they talk to crafting one of the most anticipated television events of the year for this very special MIFF Talks event. Presented in association with the Wheeler Centre, BBC First and Foxtel.
Jane Campion
Jane Campion is known for films such as Sweetie, An Angel at My Table, The Portrait of a Lady, Holy Smoke, In The Cut, Bright Star and The Piano, for which she became the first female director to receive the Palme d’Or at Cannes (she was joined by Sofia Coppola this year, bring the total number of women winners in 70 years to … two!) and the second of four women ever to be nominated as Best Director at the Academy Awards. Jane went on to win Best Screenplay. In 2012 she created, executive produced, co-wrote and directed three episodes of Top of the Lake, a six-hour TV mini-series for the BBC and the Sundance Channel. Jane has recently completed production on the second Top of the Lake series.
Gerard Lee
Gerard Lee is an Australian author, screenwriter and director. Gerard wrote, with Jane Campion, the award-winning Top of the Lake, and returns for Top of the Lake: China Girl. In addition, Gerard has recently worked on Breath, directed by Simon Baker, adapted from the Tim Winton novel. Gerard also co-wrote the MIFF Premiere Fund-supported My Mistress (MIFF 2014).
Ariel Kleiman
Award-winning Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman earned international attention and praise with a series of distinctive short films, including 2008's Young Love and 2010’s Deeper Than Yesterday - which received top prizes at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals - before delving into feature films with the dark fantasy Partisan, in 2015. He joins Campion in the director’s chair for Top of the Lake: China Girl.
Sophie Hyde (Moderator)
Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde makes provocative and intimate fiction and documentary films, including her 2014 debut feature 52 Tuesdays, which won the Directing Award for World Cinema at Sundance and the Crystal Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival. Sophie also co-directed the award-winning Life in Movement and produced Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure, Sam Klemke’s Time Machine and the short film My Best Friend is Stuck on the Ceiling (MIFF 2016). Currently, Sophie is attached to direct UK film Animals, based on the acclaimed novel by Emma Jane Unsworth; and is in post-production on F**king Adelaide, a six-part series for ABC.