At the center of Rawstock: Epic (a local and pretty decent festival that’s dedicated to the art of short films) exists a little gem from the land Down Under. I Love Sarah Jane is only 14 minutes long, stars a rising star (Mia Wasikowska—she is Alice in Tim Burton’s controversial Alice in Wonderland), and is a love story set against the end of the world. This is the aftermath: black smoke in the blue skies, overturned cars everywhere, graffiti on suburban homes, and in the blood of certain humans, a virus that makes them the living dead. The film begins with innocence (a boy cycling down a road) and ends with experience (a girl killing a zombie). Between these moments (innocence and experience), the young boy finds room in his heart for the girl. I do not usually care for zombie movies, but this one is real special and uncanny—in the German sense of Das Unheimliche (“un-home-ly”). As for Wasikowska, she is also set to star in Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation of Jane Eyre—Fukunaga directed Sin Nombre. Now that’s one director who knows no boundaries. ACT Theatre, Fri March 5 at 8:30 pm.
Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory... More by Charles Mudede
Charles, I’d say your description of the story arc is correct. The Boy starts in innocence, and his love for the girl is still, then, innocent. After the experience (girl kills zombie) his love (expressed in his wry smile) is none the less, but now filtered through that knowledge. His childhood, strange at it is, leaves him when he sees her kill. His adulthood sets on him with that knowing smile.