Search The Archive

Search the film archive

One of the most distinctive and acclaimed filmmakers of his generation, British director Peter Strickland has crafted a body of work that is dark, playful, horrific and sensual all at the same time. Deeply immersed in the style and tone of European genre films from the 1960s and 1970s, his films push the boundaries of cinematic sound and visual style in ways that has captivated cinephiles all over the world. 

As one of MIFF’s Directors in Focus this year, Strickland will visit Melbourne to present his new film, In Fabric, as well as retrospective screenings of his previous films and screenings of classic films that have inspired him. During this special event, he will sit down for a one-hour conversation to discuss his career, his filmography and his own cinephilia.

Moderated by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Peter Strickland started making short films on Super 8 and 16mm in the early 1990s. After directing his adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis for Reading's Progress Theatre in 1992 he went on to direct a short film called Bubblegum (starring Warhol superstar, Holly Woodlawn). After a long hiatus, making culinary soundscapes with The Sonic Catering Band, he returned to film in the early part of this century. His first feature film, Katalin Varga (starring Hilda Péter) was funded from an inheritance and shot and edited on a budget of £25,000. The Transylvanian tragedy led to funding from the British film industry. The Milano-Dorking sonic anguish of Berberian Sound Studio (starring Toby Jones) followed in 2012 along with the dominant/submissive romance, The Duke of Burgundy (starring Sidse Babett Knudsen) in 2015. Several radio plays along with a concert film for Björk co-directed with Nick Fenton were made in the last few years and his fourth feature, the Thames Valley retail nightmare In Fabric (starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is being released this year.

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is a film critic, author, programming consultant and academic who has written seven books on gender, genre and representations of sexual violence, cult and horror film, and women’s filmmaking. She is an award-winning film critic who holds a PhD in Screen Studies and is a frequent contributor to DVD and Blu-ray releases by boutique home entertainment companies including Arrow Video, Kino Lorber, and Eureka Entertainment. She is the owner and creator of the database Generation Starstruck: Australian Women's Filmmaking 1980–1999 and she co-programmed the Pioneering Women program for the 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival. She recently co-edited the Senses of Cinema MIFF dossier ‘The Analogues of Peter Strickland’ with John Edmond, and wrote a catalogue essay for the stage adaptation of Strickland's film Berberian Sound Studio at Donmar Warehouse in London’s Covent Garden.