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Explore the MIFF 2025 program: Strand Origin Genre Language Film Finder
Mistress Dispeller
Mistress Dispeller
Mistress Dispeller

Mistress Dispeller

Unclassified 15+
Dir. Elizabeth Lo / 2024 / 94 mins / USA, China / Mandarin / Documentary / Victorian Premiere
Program Strand/s: Documentaries

A woman is hired to break up an extramarital affair in this poignant, multi-award-winning documentary account of devotion, desire and the human thirst for connection.

For the innovative service providers of China’s booming romance economy, infidelity presents just another business opportunity. When she discovers that her husband is being unfaithful, Mrs Li enlists a ‘mistress dispeller’, Wang Zhenxi, to unravel the affair and save her marriage. In no time, Wang ingratiates herself with Mr Li and the young Fei Fei in search of any fissures that could drive them apart. Far from being a cheap chronicle of messy infidelity, however, what emerges is an empathetic study of individuals trying their best to heed what their hearts are telling them.

Taking inspiration from Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (MIFF 2025), Elizabeth Lo’s (Stray, MIFF 2021) documentary uses unbroken long takes to allow its subjects to lay their dreams and fears bare for the camera, ensuring no person becomes the butt of easy judgement. Garnering accolades at Venice, Chicago and beyond, Mistress Dispeller is an absorbing, eye-opening film about tradition, the trials of intimacy and the challenges of putting one’s happiness in the hands of others.

“Engages its audience through an earnest empathy with all three parties, and a daring openness between subject and filmmaker … Elegantly constructed, ethically created, and thought-provokingly humane.” – Mashable

Tickets

Metro sessions
Fri 8 Aug 1:45pm ACMI 2
Access: Assistive listening Wheelchair Accessible 100 percent subtitled Hearing Loop
Past Session
Past Session
Tue 12 Aug 4:00pm ACMI 1
Access: Assistive listening Wheelchair Accessible 100 percent subtitled Hearing Loop
Past Session
Past Session
Fri 15 Aug 9:15pm Hoyts Melbourne Central Cinema 8/10
Access: Assistive listening Wheelchair Accessible 100 percent subtitled
Past Session
Past Session
Regional sessions
Sat 16 Aug 2:45pm The Pivotonian Cinema Geelong
Access: Wheelchair Accessible 100 percent subtitled
Past Session
Past Session

For information about the accessible services being offered at MIFF, please visit miff.com.au/access. If you require any access service, such as wheelchair/step-free access, for any MIFF session, please call 03 8660 4888 or email boxoffice@miff.com.au to book your ticket.

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