Set against the backdrop of a sleepy Melbourne suburb in 1999, Of An Age follows Kol (Elias Anton), a 17-year-old Serbian immigrant, who is sent spiralling into a mind-altering romance with the mysterious Adam (Thom Green).
The release marks director Goran Stolevski’s second film, after debuting the hauntingly transcendent You Won’t Be Alone last year, which featured the incredible Noomi Rapace.
Now, Stolevski has taken on the talents of Thom Green and Elias Anton to enchant audiences back into the viscera of a love story.
Directorial vision
Goran Stolevski describes his inspiration behind the story:
“I was reading a story about a boy in high school who went to his first ever party. When I got to the part when he steps into that party, I had the most intense flashback to the one party I went to in high school.
“I suddenly felt like I was a 17-year-old kid again. Normally this is not a period I think about very much. It was a period during which I was very absent from my life because I felt like I was just waiting for life to start. Having this very intense memory—especially in relationship to who I am now—made me want to revisit those feelings.
“I didn’t want to write autobiographically about my life but about the feelings of that period. In a sense, this is an emotional autobiography. Immediately, I had this vivid image of two guys talking in a car. About 60 percent of the dialogue just came to me then.”
As Goran goes to explain, however, the challenge was to then make the least romantic place in the world the setting for mind-altering romance.
“When I was growing up, I always felt that real life was happening elsewhere. It happened where the movies were. Those were the important feelings, and where I was had no importance. I think I felt at the time that for feelings to feel valid there had to be some sort of cinematic context. It was an unfortunate state of mind, but it is what I needed in order to survive.”
“That was what I was looking for in Melbourne without changing it or making it inauthentic.”
Watch the trailer for Of an Age:
The incredibly heart-wrenching trailer shows a glimpse of their love-story set to the score of Otherside by Perfume Genius:
Of An Age comes to select Australian cinemas on March 23rd, 2023 with special advance screenings at New Farm Cinemas from the 12th to 19th. Book a ticket now.
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