About

This screening will be introduced by Rosie Hays, Australian Cinémathèque.

Pablo Larraín’s white-hot stylish film Ema is both seductive and sinuous. With captivating dance performances seamlessly woven into the narrative – expect flame throwers, neon-tinged street scenes, and heaving, reggaeton dancers in the pre-dawn light.

In the picturesque seaside city of Valparaíso, Ema (Mariana Di Girolamo) and Gastón (Gael García Bernal) – a beautiful, talented, successful contemporary dance couple – are in the throes of something big. Their marriage is disintegrating, their young son, Polo, is no longer living with them, and the fallout is complicated. Ema, played with phosphorescent brilliance by Di Girolamo, is a force of nature who is prepared to burn it all down to reunite with her child.

Larraín works between Hollywood and Chile and had recently released in 2016, the biopic Neruda 2016 about Chilean poet Pablo Neruda starring Gael García Bernal and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biopic Jackie 2016 played by Natalie Portman when he returned to shoot Ema in Chile.

MA15+ | Strong sex scenes