Petrol (2023) is a new Australian film from director Alena Lodkina. I had only caught up recently with her first, Strange Colours, which screened at Revelation Film Festival and is a father-daughter drama set in the Lightning Ridge opal mining bushlands of New South Wales, which I found to be authentic and artful, patiently compelling. Petrol is set within urban Naarm/Melbourne and is both similar in style and tone to her previous film to a degree, a clear sense of control and taste in evidence, but also completely different in effect.
The film focuses on Eva played by Nathalie Morris (from the TV show Bump) who is a film student living at home with her Russian immigrant family – a background shared by the director Alena, though this is not an autobiography at all. While recording sound out on a coastal hillside for one of her final year film projects, Eva secretly observes a performance on the shore by a small group of people, filming characters dressed up as vampires reciting arch prose. The star performer is artist Mia (Hannah Lynch). Though they never speak, there is something about Mia that captivates Eva. Later while walking through the city at night, Eva spies Mia along, deciding to crash. They meet in the party conversation over wine and eventually become friends, to the point where Mia who is living in an apartment, apparently paid for by a wealthy benefactor, offers Eva a room to stay in.
This is the starting point of the film, but the great thing about how it unfolds was that I was never sure where it was heading. There are everyday moments of Eva getting along at film school or spending time with her mother or grandmother. And then there will be a surreal or odd moment, sometimes revealed to be a dream, other times possibly drug-induced. Mia talks of a sister who died when she was young, and there is possibly the presence of a ghost. Petrol’s style often flirts with becoming a horror movie, or a thriller, but then will also disarm you with something humorous and charming. Petrol is a singular, unique film working in the arthouse tradition that uses mystery and dream logic to communicate a familiar feeling. Of being young and defining your identity, falling in love with people because of what they represent rather than who they are, and trying to fit in when people are elusive and indeterminate.
The performances are really good, particularly Nathalie Morris who is the central character and whose experience guides the perspective of the film. Morris projects empathy through her introverted, thoughtful and uncertain manner. At points, I was reminded of playful, surrealist auteurs from the 1970s like Jacques Rivette or Apichatpong Weerasethakul – even Jean Rollin with characters wandering a cold looking beach wearing coats and cloaks. With its use of dream logic and subconscious imagery, it’s also hard not to compare to David Lynch. But there’s a different tone and impact here – this is not a crime movie or a horror, but uses the cinematic language here to convey something about existentialism, identity and relationships. Great cinematography by Michael Latham, particularly of how it makes the inner-city Naarm look at certain points and its contrast with the countryside landscape, and the score is by musicians Mikey Young and Raven Mahon.
Petrol is out in cinemas now and it’s definitely a strange, surreal experience. Not for everyone, but I’m very keen that there should be more Australian films like this. Recommended.
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