A young girl tries to save her father.
EVIE is used with permission from Lake Martin Films. Learn more at lakemartinfilms.com/productions/evie.
Evie and her father live in a world decimated by nuclear war, and now barbaric marauders and genetically modified dinosaurs roam the countryside where they live, making it a dangerous, desolate place.
The relationship between the young adolescent and her father is also tense, as her father attempts to teach her how to survive while contending with her natural sense of rebelliousness. But then her father becomes injured, and Evie must venture alone to a distant farmhouse to seek medical supplies, challenging Evie to recall everything she has pushed away just when she needs it the most.
Directed by Alex von Hofmann from a script written by Atticus Martin and Lukas Martin, this short action thriller balances dystopian post-apocalyptic suspense with a portrait of a father and daughter whose relationship has frayed. Much of that is a natural move towards independence as a child matures, but the separation process is made all the more complicated in a world rife with violence and terror.
Shot with a weathered, careworn visual style and often shrouded in shadows, the film takes advantage of the raw Australian landscape to establish a sense of emptiness and isolation in a ravaged world, with the storytelling carefully laying out suggestive hints of the larger threats Evie and her father face. There's a primitive natural beauty that sparks reverie and dreaminess in Evie, but the omnipresence of barbed wire fences hints at the looming threats, as do the otherworldly screeches in the distance. The writing and directing are excellent at both building the world and its inherent tensions. So when Evie's father becomes injured in an altercation and gangrene sets in and Evie must cross this perilous landscape on her own to find medicine and supplies, we understand this is no mere errand.
Evie faces obstacles on her own, and her curiosity and craving for independence and experience keep her out longer than necessary. But actor Melody Rom has a natural intelligence and toughness that makes both her rebelliousness and her resourcefulness believable, especially when she attracts the attention of two unsavory marauders -- and an even larger threat lurking in the shadows. In confronting these, Evie learns what she is made of, and just how well her father taught her.
Well-crafted, gripping and compelling, EVIE features many tautly suspenseful moments, but at its heart, it's a coming-of-age story of one girl testing the growing boundaries of her independence and strength. In the end, she demonstrates to herself and her father just what a fighter and survivor she is, and he comes to trust and believe in her -- so much so that she ends up being the most stalwart defender of their homestead, even when all other defenses have fallen.