We first meet Freckles (Sarah Houbolt) muttering ‘I don’t believe in love because I’ve never seen it’ to a faceless interviewer. Her recollections transport the audience to a monochrome dystopian landscape, where she exists with her father, an ageing paranoid schizophrenic clown (Robyn Royce Queere). Her world careens between tenderness and aggression; fear, paranoia and anger consume the lost souls. Writer/director Luke Sullivan’s disturbing, abrasive vision may be the most striking Australian feature since Alex Proyas’ Spirits of The Air Gremlins of The Clouds; while it recalls the bitter futuristic existentialism of Andrei Tarkovsky and the savage relationship dynamics of Harold Beckett, Reflections in the Dust is a blisteringly unique film experience from the cutting-edge/avant garde frontline of the local film sector.
