Perth Voice Interactive

A KOREAN grandma buying pot for her grandson, a fair dinkum spoof of Kill Bill, and missionaries coming face-to-face with a sarcastic God are some of the wacky goings-on at this year’s World of Dark Comedy.

Featuring 14 short films from across the globe, the festival specialises in comedy with macabre overtones and ironic twists.

Festival director Greg Coffey says this years’ theme is gangsters, including the good, bad, cool, awkward and downright strange.

“My favourite gangster is Robert de Niro, because he is sometimes awkward and goofy and always cool,” Coffey says.

There’s plenty of homegrown talent on show including the WA film Kill Mick, an action-comedy that mashes Crocodile Dundee with John Wick and Kill Bill.

At the other end of the spectrum is the US film Meister der Scheisse (Master of Shit), an animated expressionist story about the origins of an infamous, historic German buffoon.

Featuring innovative animation that combines 2D black-and-white cut-outs of people with eerie CGI backgrounds and German folk music, it’s a visceral and arresting watch with some scatology thrown in for good measure.

Continuing the surreal theme, the Iranian A Story of Theft centres around a classic premise – a burglary gone wrong.

Thankfully the film is no boring cliché and turns into a disorientating fever dream that will leave the audience questioning their own reality.

Coffey says they didn’t have a pre-determined theme for the festival, and it emerged organically after they selected films from around the world.

“There are many great works this year, but two captured me for their difference,” he says.

“In Halmoni’s Pot an elder woman has to deal with drug dealers as her grandson is ill.

“She, of Korean background, knows how to get a damn good deal, and her swagger at the end tells all.

“A Story of Theft from Iran shows these two newbies in the robbery bus. They find themselves robbing the wrong place and then they have to give it all back – the dance at the end is magic.”

This year’s festival showcases films from a wide range of countries including Spain, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Iran and the UK.

If you like spoofs, then the US short Tails from the Wild will be right up your alley. 

In the nature mockumentary, we follow an innocuous koala that becomes the most infamous animal in the outback for all the wrong reasons.

If you’re sick of religious folk coming to your door and trying to convert you, you’ll probably get a lot of schadenfreude  from Autographed by God.

In this short film, two missionaries meet a man claiming to be God, but what should be a joyous, life-affirming encounter takes a dark and fatal turn.

Social embarrassment has always been a popular concept for a short film and the Lebanese-made Condom Hunters takes that premise to the next level.

The plot revolves around an incident in a pharmacy that reveals a conservative daughter, married man and sexually active young adult all have the same goal – to buy a condom.

Now in its fifth year, the World of Dark Comedy is a grass-roots community film festival run by a motley crew of Perth volunteers who report to festival founder and zany svengali Greg Coffey.

It’s on at Luna Leederville on November 15 and Luna on SX in Fremantle on November 22. For tix see lunapalace.com.au.  

by STEPHEN POLLOCK