Image: cover of Tales From the Cancer Ward
The decision about the opening night film for the Melbourne International Film Festival 2015 drops straight into the long, poignant relationship between the city and its most challenging cinema auteur.
The picture is Force of Destiny, and the filmmaker is Paulus Henriqus Bendictus Cox, born in the Netherlands in 1940. He has made nineteen features and twelve documentaries in his 75 years, and this film represents a triumphant return after liver cancer and a transplant. Right now, he is overseas visiting his family.