Dir: Sophie Somerville | Cast: Melissa Gan, Emmanuelle Mattana | Australia Comedy drama. 97’
A magnificent example of how an unscripted conversation can flow quite naturally between two young Gen Z women enjoying a carefree way of life in Melbourne Australia.
Em has travelled from Sydney to visit her friend Jessie here. They don’t have any particular plans – but like all close friends the conversation flows and feels so natural.
Both of them are rather footloose in their lives: Em because her supposed dream job is not what she thought it would be in the male orientated world where her woman boss is not easy either. Jessie has just split up with her boyfriend Jason, so the two mates cling to each other in a laid back way their flip smalltalk revealing more gravity than they would admit to.
Fwends breaches the divide between the fancy free existence of youth and the more sober side of adulthood. Improvisational and largely narrative-free the feature floats along pleasingly, as we tune into the subtext of the girls’ reality.
Putting a light-hearted often humorous spin on serious issues: work and job interviews, parents, relationships – even kids – we gradually get the measure of them..
Freewheeling through the gloriously leafy city of Melbourne their chat is enlightening, amusing and very much reflects the English language in in terms of inflection and vocabulary typical of 21st century youth. Interpolations such as ‘like’ feature heavily with the ubiquitous ‘so’ beginning many sentences. Fwends is engaging despite some slackness in the mid-section.
Breezily filmed with some neon-infused nightscapes, Fwends also serves as a informative visual travelogue of Melbourne in springtime . @MeredithTaylor
BERLINALE | FORUM 2025