Event Navigation
Co-presented by
Storyline
When Azubuike’s 12-year-old son moves in with him, the struggling shoe salesman finds himself balancing fatherhood and the slow collapse of his small shop. As the pair navigate their estrangement, the unspoken becomes a language of its own; one shaped by pride, duty, and the quiet weight of expectation. With the future of both the shop and their relationship hanging in the balance, father and son must find a way to bridge the distance between one another.
Synopsis
When Azubuike’s 12-year-old son moves in with him, the struggling shoe salesman finds himself balancing fatherhood and the slow collapse of his small shop. As the pair navigate their estrangement, the unspoken becomes a language of its own; one shaped by pride, duty, and the quiet weight of expectation. With the future of both the shop and their relationship hanging in the balance, father and son must find a way to bridge the distance between one another.
Directed by
Kalu Oji is an Igbo-Australian filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. Firmly established as one of Australia’s new generation of emerging filmmakers, his work primarily explores notions of identity, in particular the African-Australian experience. Graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and TV), his graduate film, BLACKWOOD (2019), received international acclaim, picking up the Filmmaker To Watch Award (Atlanta Film Festival), Luggi Waldleitner Award for Best Screenplay (Filmschoolfest Munich), and Best Cinematography (Flickerfest), going on to screen at a handful of other Oscar and BAFTA Qualifying festivals. Kalu has since gone on to write and direct two more short films; THE MOON AND ME (2020), premiering at the Oscar-Qualifying Pan African FF and exhibited at San Francisco’s Museum of African Diaspora, and WHAT’S IN A NAME? (2022) a Multicultural Arts Victoria funded reimagining of the mockumentary genre, selected at Sydney FF.
