The opening sequence at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for “Stranger, Brother,” is a beautiful ocean scene. This is an Australian short by Tongan/Australian director Annelise Hickey. The film opens with a silhouetting charismatic lead Tiaki Teremoana who plays Adam. The music (Will Morrissey composed) is good. The gorgeous horizon quickly morphs into a street scene, shot with jerky hand-held strobe-like effects by Director of Photography Matthew Chuang Acs.
The camera work was very effective at illustrating Adam’s recent dissolute lifestyle. This includes time spent distracting himself from his real life and his original family of origin. Costa-Gavras used the jerky hand-held camera technique way back in 1969’s “Z”. Back then international critics swooned at its use. The technique has since become a cinema staple. We see it in scenes that depict Adam’s attempts to run away from his real life and family by living life in the fast lane in Australia.
It is a surprise when, after a night spent partying, Adam’s half-brother Moses (called Moss) turns up unexpectedly on Adam’s doorstep. The younger boy (Moses) has a different mother than Adam. Their Aboriginal father has provided no advance warning about Moses’ arrival or why Moses might be visiting. Adam does ask (“So, are you gonna’ tell me why you’re really here?”) but the younger brother does not immediately answer.
The two make a trip to the grocery store and banter about the relative “hotness” of Laura (Charly Thorn). It isn’t until they are on the beach that there is a real breakthrough in communicating. Adam finally succeeds in contacting their father and learns that Moses’ mother, Mary, is in hospice care. Moss is upset and tense. The brothers nearly come to blows on the beach. Adam seems to realize, in that moment, that he has an obligation as Moses’ older half-brother, to provide some stability and a haven for a young boy in distress. It is fitting that the end of the short film takes place where it began, on the shore of the same beautiful beach where it began.
The film was shot on the unceded lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, which is sacred Aboriginal land.
The lead (Tiaki Teremoana) portrays Adam. His character is particularly charismatic and explores the message of accepting and supporting one’s family. No matter how fractured that family may be, the message is clear. The sound, music, and cinematography help drive home that point. Director Annelise Hickey, who earned an award as the emerging Australian filmmaker at the 2023 Melbourne Film Awards has supervised an interesting and meaningful 14’ 31” short film that premiered at the Egyptian Theater at Sundance on Saturday night, January 25, 2025.
The film’s short synopsis reads:
“Two estranged half-brothers are thrust together when 10-year-old Mose unexpectedly appears on millennial Adam’s doorstep. Annoyed by the disruption to his carefree life, Adam struggles to contact their elusive father for answers. Tensions rise as Mose begins to suspect that Adam is ashamed of him, while Adam discovers the poignant truth: Mose’s mother is dying. The brothers clash in a heated confrontation that ultimately reveals their unspoken need for each other.”
Annelise Hickey is a narrative filmmaker from Naarm (Melbourne). Her debut short, Hafekasi (2023 Tribeca Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival), earned a Narrative Short Special Jury Mention. Hickey is the recipient of the 2023 Emerging Australian Filmmaker Award at the Melbourne Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival).
