10 Years of Second Run: Kim Newman selects and Marc Isaacs introduces Celia

“Marks a feature debut of astonishing skill... forceful, outlandish and highly provocative” Empire
“Transfixing, assured, extremely lucid… recalls the deceptive serenity of Blue Velvet” The New York Times
"I rate Celia as one of those classics of childhood such as Reed’s The Fallen Idol or Truffaut’s The 400 Blows” The Mail

The film is introduced by Marc Isaacs.

Winner of Grand Prix at Créteil International Women's Film Festival 1989

Set in mid 1950s Australia, with the fear of communism in the air, the film depicts a long hot summer seen through the eyes and overactive imagination of nine-year old Celia.

Shaken by the death of her beloved Grandmother, Celia finds herself adrift between the cruel games and rituals of childhood and the incomprehensible world of grown-ups.With monstrous creatures stalking her dreams by night, those imagined terrors blur by day with the banal brutality of the adult world and lead to tragic and shocking consequences.

Ann Turner's refreshingly unsentimental debut feature is a dark fable of childhood's end. An enthralling film to rank alongside Lord of the Flies, The 400 Blows and Stand By Me.

Kim Newman explains his selection:

“My favourite Second Run film is Ann Turner’s Celia – one of the great movies about the terrors, wonders and strangeness of childhood, and a still-undervalued classic of Australian cinema.”

Second Run lavish care and attention on important films which might otherwise fall through the cracks, and UK film culture is the richer for the company’s dedication and enthusiasm.”

Kim Newman is an award-winning novelist, writer, critic, journalist and broadcaster. He is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine Empire, and writes for assorted publications. He is the author of arguably the most comprehensive overview of the horror film industry, Nightmare Movies: Forty Years of Fear. His novel Anno Dracula was winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

Marc Isaacs is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His films have won Grierson, Royal Television Society and BAFTA awards as well as numerous international film festival prizes. His works include Lift (2001), All White in Barking (2007), Men of the City (2009) and The Road: A Story of Life and Death (2012).

Celia, dir. Ann Turner, Australia 1988, 99 mins

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