Lavazza Italian Film Festival presents Bangla, a quirky romantic comedy film that is Directed by and starring Phaim Bhuiyan and also features romantic interest Carlotta Antonelli as Asia. This film provides a fresh take on modern romance with a twenty-two year old Bangladeshi boy and an Italian girl falling in love. The protagonist and man behind the film Phaim, is a unique character that wants to feel intimacy with a woman despite his Muslim religious background that advises him not to engage in such activities before marriage.

An acrobatic, colourful and unnerving journey through life and death to create an incredible visual spectacle

Yang Liping has created a vibrant reinterpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, using choreographed contemporary dance, mixed with Eastern philosophy. Liping’s last presentation of Under Siege at Brisbane’s 2017 Festival was a popular hit. She has won many awards, including the Gold Award for the 20th Century Chinese Classics of Dance, and is a household name throughout China. 

Inspired by Italian writer Italo Calvino’s novel of the same name, Invisible Cities is about the relationship between hot blooded Kublai Khan, head of the Khan dynasty’s vast empire, and explorer/prisoner Marco Polo as he transcends language barrier, time and space itself to describe to him the state of his vast empire with the promise of release for his Father, Uncle and himself.

Giantess tells the story of a little girl who wished she was a giant. A girl who, in the middle of a shopping mall outing with her father is abducted by a horrible troll. As the years pass she realises she must become a giantess if she ever wants to escape. This one-woman show is told through vivid storytelling matched with storybook illustrations and music interwoven with observant standup comedy about everything from politics to go cards, comedy to second puberty.