Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.

Martha, an Indigenous woman, works tirelessly in a laundromat, until the monotonous routine is interrupted by a mysterious visitor who reminds her of the life she left behind.

A young man reconciles ancient tradition with the modern, urban world in this debut feature from Stephen Page, artistic director of Australia’s renowned Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Like many teens, Kim, a non binary fifteen year old, is overwhelmed by digital noise, constantly called back to bouts of scrolling by the pings of their phone – until a claw rips through their bedroom and drags them off to a kaleidoscopic otherworld. There, a sardonic alien dog called Jeff sets Kim on a cryptic quest for freedom: to travel to five islands over the course of 24 hours. Guided by Aboriginal Elders and crossing surreal, symbolic realms – a sentient library, a battlefield of ideologies and an ocean of memories – Kim confronts their fears and addictions. From rune-wielding Viking chefs to fascist pirates and a cyborg shaman, each encounter unveils deeper truths about nature, time and spirit.