Four years ago today, Angel of Mine was released in theaters. That makes today the perfect day to celebrate its fabulous director, Kim Farrant!
Kim Farrant is an Australian director known for her riveting mysteries and thrillers. Born and raised in Australia, Kim received her masters in Film and TV Directing from the Australian Film Television and Radio school. She also studied acting at The Actors Center in Sydney. As it states on her website, she “is known as an actors director with the uncanny ability to [elicit] incredibly raw performances from [the] cast.” This is no doubt in part due to her own training, allowing her to connect with the acting process as a director.
Kim’s debut feature film was Strangerland (2015), a psychological thriller drama.
Kim’s debut feature film was Strangerland (2015), a psychological thriller drama. The film revolves around a married couple (played by Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes) who have recently moved to a small Australian desert town with their two teenage children. Their lives are sent into turmoil when their two children, Lily and Tom, go missing without a trace.
Strangerland reveals Kim’s directorial strengths from the outset: the characters, who harbor complex secrets and histories, are phenomenally acted as these pasts are uncovered. Kim’s personal connection to Australia is also clear here, as the desert environment takes on its own role. The atmospheric cinematography captures the vastness and harshness of the Australian outback, reflecting and sometimes intensifying the high emotional stakes of the film.
Kim’s next film, Angel of Mine (2019), is another psychological thriller, and a remake of the 2008 French film Mark of an Angel. Angel of Mine is about a young woman named Lizzie (Noomie Repace) who, struggling to cope with the loss of her daughter, becomes convinced that another woman’s daughter is actually hers. As Lizzie’s mental state becomes more and more unstable, the film blurs the lines between reality and Lizzie’s perceptions.
This film marks a new development in Kim’s storytelling, as it is Lizzie’s mental state that unravels, rather than the environment around her. Stil, Kim plays to her strengths with this film, which owes its emotional intensity to the stellar acting performance by Noomi and the increasingly eerie and suspenseful cinematography which mirrors Lizzie’s psychological state.
Kim’s most recent film, The Weekend Away, is based on a novel of the same name by Sarah Alderson.
Just last year, Kim’s most recent film was released on Netflix: The Weekend Away. Based on a novel of the same name by Sarah Alderson, the film stars Leighton Meester as Beth, a young woman who travels to Croatia with her best friend Kate, who inexplicably goes missing. The film brings with it Kim’s usual: an extremely strong acting performance by Leighton Meester, and an atmosphere which evokes in the viewer the emotional journey that Beth is experiencing. This time, the film is set in the beautiful and sunny Croatia, rendering Kim’s ability to make the environment unsettling all the more impressive.
Kim’s three major films show that she knows her strengths and sticks with them. All power to her, because in every psychological suspense film, she absolutely nails the psychological suspense. In fact, one might call Kim the queen of the thriller genre.
© Julia Lasker (8/30/23) FF2 Media
LEARN MORE/DO MORE
Read Jan Lisa Huttner’s review of Strangerland here.
Read Giorgi Plys-Garzotto’s review of Angel of Mine here.
Learn more about Kim here.
Watch Strangerland here.
Watch Angel of Mine here.
Watch The Weekend Away here.
CREDITS & PERMISSIONS
Featured photo: Actress Nicole Kidman in STRANGERLAND (2015) directed by Kim Farrant. Credit: Cinematic / Alamy Stock Photo. Image ID: 2JE2Y1K
Bottom photo: Filmmaker Kim Farrant at the Sydney Film Festival Australian Premiere of STRANGERLAND (2015) at the State Theatre, 49 Market Street, Sydney, Australia on 5 June 2015. Credit: Richard Milnes / Alamy Stock Photo. Image ID: ERN0F0
