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Starring Tiriel Mora, Smoke Between Trees is the sensitive and emotionally rich story of a broken man whose life is forever changed when he’s reunited with his grandson.
Sixty-something real estate agent Matthew Higgins has lost everything: his wife has Alzheimer’s disease and now resides in an assisted living facility, from which she routinely strays; their daughter died in a car crash a decade ago, alongside the father of her child, an Aboriginal man. Matthew has struggled with grief ever since, cutting himself off from his grandson, Ari, who survived the crash. But on the eve of Ari’s 10th birthday, his gran and guardian Francine drops the boy off with Matthew while she goes into the city for an appointment and Matthew is forced to reckon with the past as his future opens up.
Smoke Between Trees traces an intimate and sensitive arc of interpersonal relationships as it sketches a broader picture of family, race, cultural resilience and love. Newcomer Robert-Joseph Slockee is wonderful as Ari, a child caught between families and cultures, while Tiriel Mora (Book Week, MIFF 2018) offers a sympathetic and captivating portrait of a devastated man putting himself back together again. Shot in the Blue Mountains, it’s a deeply moving, compassionate and engaging new film from director Michael Joy (Men’s Group).
