Award winning shorts director Warwick Thornton has made a superb debut feature with this low budget Aboriginal drama. This is sure to be a film that you will hear a lot about early next year when the awards are being handed out, this is your chance to see it first. Set in the powerful heat of the Australian outback, 15 year old Samson's (McNamara) first instinct upon waking is to sniff petrol fumes before he can function and Delilah (Gibson) has to look after her elderly Nana before she can do anything else. When they are forced to flee from their town after the death of Delilah's Nana they steal the only car in town and escape to Alice Springs. They don't find the dream life that they are after and are forced to fend for themselves on the harsh streets of an unfamiliar big city. Preceded by KARELIAN COWGIRLS OUDOILLE OVILLE UK/Finland 2008/ 10mins (In Finish with subtitles) Director: Minttu Mäntynen In 1939, at the start of the bitterly cold Winter War the Soviet Red Army invaded Finnish-Karelia forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians deep into Finland. With men at warfront and women looking after the small children, the responsibility of driving the family cattle through deep snow and hostile lands was forced upon the oldest girls. At IFF 08 Minttu Mäntynen held a cinematography masterclass, so we are delighted to screen her wonderful short this year.