LAST DANCE is a beautiful film about a hostage and her captor in a small flat in leafy Melbourne.

Ulah is an ageing Jewish widow, played wonderfully by Julia Blake, who is taken hostage by a young Palestinian, Sadiq, rising star Firass Dirani, after the bombing of a local synagogue. He intends to wait until he is rescued by the other members of his cell. Frequent police patrols and overhead helicopters tell us that the police are searching for Sadiq.

Most of the film has only these two characters on screen. The intelligent script is all that is needed to keep us engrossed in what is essentially a captivating low key thriller. Our sympathies initially are with Ulah but history and Sadiq’s convincing arguments bring balance and the understanding that it is not a black and white situation. It could be viewed as a naïve belief that if the opposing sides were to sit and talk with each other they may find that they have more in common with each other than mutual hatred. There is merit to this position but nevertheless there is a rich drama here and empathy for both characters. There are some implausibilities in this scenario but the rich and beautifully paced scripts allows the audience to ignore these implausibilities and concentrate on the drama.

This is David Pulbrook’s first feature film. He has worked as a director of Crawford television shows in the sixties and seventies. He started work on the script some eight years ago.

David Pulbrook’s LAST DANCE is screening at the Chauvel Cinema at Paddington Town Hall.

© Mark Pigott

1st October, 2012

Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- LAST DANCE, David Pulbrook, Julia Blake, Firass Dirani, Chauvel cinema, Sydney Arts Guide, Mark Pigott