A State of Siege
- Year:
- 1978
“Internationally-acclaimed film A State of Siege is a taut and sensitive treatment of an aging spinster’s retreat into isolation, memory and madness”
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Malfred Signal leaves her life of stifling gentility, (as an art teacher in a South Island private girls school), and decides to live out her dream – painting alone in the remote North. One terrifying night, beset by a prowler, but confronting only her own image at every step, she relives her past.
A State of Siege articulates a tense and strange poetry of life, in a social and spiritual backwater. Where the apparent uniformity and calm holds unfamiliar experience and unknown dangers.
Images
Cast and crew
- Director:
- Vincent Ward
- Producer:
- Timothy White
- Written by :
- Vincent Ward and Timothy White
- Based on a novel by :
- Janet Frame
- Featuring :
- Anne Flannery
- Cinematography :
- Alun Bollinger
- Editor:
- Chris King
A stunning almost surreal evocation of the disintergration of a spinster school teacher (Anne Flannery, a remarkable actress).
Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas — 1980
Ward, 24, educated originally as an artist, uses few words to express moods in films. 'A State of Siege' is an almost hypnotic look at a middle aged art teacher facing retirement...Her growing sense of fear is muted but there is something frighteningly infectious about it in the quietly powerful performance of Anne Flannery, her eyes lost in reverie.
San Francisco Chronicle, Judy Stone — 1981
Magnificently photographed by Alan Bollinger and with a superb performance by Anne Flannery, 'A State of Siege' achieves a tense and strange poetry of life in a social and spiritual backwater whose apparent uniformity and calm holds unfamiliar experiences and unknown dangers.
Sydney Morning Herald, Meaghan Morris — 1981
Ward, who at 14 is a major talent emerging from a burgeoning New Zealand cinema, avoids conventional exposition and narration to trust his images to express the inner lives of these women.
Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas — 1981
INTERVIEW with Vincent Ward
Art New Zealand, Tony Mitchell — 1884
INTERVIEW with Vincent Ward
NZ Listener — 1979
Special Jury Prize
Miami Film Festival — 1978
Golden Hugo
Chicago Film Festival — 1978