Cheaters always cheat, so can trust be restored?
ZELOS is the perfect title, for this Australian indie feature movie film, as the word in Greek has the meaning of ZEAL and PASSION, but also of JEALOUSY and SUSPICION.
The nature of freedom versus responsibility in relationships is explored, during this different and intriguing story of two successful thirty-somethings, Bernard (Ben Mortley:- Lantana, McLeod’s Daughters, Drift, Foreshadow, Pinch) and Sarah (Shannon Ashlyn:- Wolf Creek 2, Love Child, Dripping in Chocolate, Puberty Blues, Devil’s Dust).
ZELOS takes a bold and brave path that shows precisely how both Bernard and Sarah cope, from the announcement of her affair whilst overseas on holiday without Bernard.
With the notion of salvaging their relationship, and in a bid to restore his trust, Sarah insists that Bernard sleep with another woman to even the score.
What could possibly go wrong?! Whole levels of their relationship immediately take on a very different dynamic, fuelled by Bernard’s constant questions and jealousy.
ZELOS is fast paced entertainment, with the perfect cast of Sydney based actors. The movie is a film helmed predominantly by women, including director, co-producers, writer, cinematographer, editor and female-dominated crew.
Director Jo-Anne Brechin has a strong visual eye for detail, and this is her feature film directorial debut. Jo-Anne first met writer Claire Harris who was studying screenwriting at AFTRS in 2013.
Claire Harris pitched ZELOS in class at AFTRS, and Jo-Anne Brechin decided, “let’s do that together”. They agreed to make the film when Harris finished the screenplay, a “good creative collaboration” was their starting point for their unique vision, that has now been realised.
In order to complete post-production for the film, Brechin and Harris established a crowd-funding campaign through the “Australian Cultural Fund”, with all of those tax deductible donations going towards the final edit, sound design, score, and colour grading.
Harris and Brechin became co-producers of ZELOS after forming their own production company “Painted Gate Pictures”, and used their own bank accounts in order to get ZELOS up and running. Crowd-funding was successfully used to pay for making the final-cut version.
Starting in January 2016, Brechin took less than three weeks, to fully complete their fast paced shooting, beautifully filmed in the suburbs of Sydney. In all the total production time took six months including the time for auditions, casting, design, wrapping principal photography, and the post-production process.
Brechin said that alongside cinematographer Emma Paine, they thankfully both chose to avoid the hand-held aesthetic, thus rendering crisp sharp scenes, instead of blurred, nausea-producing scenes. The image quality shows, because ZELOS was shot predominantly on sticks using ARRI Alexa, and that easily allows the film to easily compete against bigger budget productions, especially with the support of Definition Films (The Water Diviner, Ruben Guthrie), who provided top-of-the-range camera equipment and post-production suites.
The movie stars Shannon Ashlyn, Ben Mortley, Leigh Scully, Ainslie McGlynn and Jeanie Drynan. Exact Running Time is 01h 26m 57s.
“ZELOS © 2017 Painted Gate Pictures” – ZELOS was released nationally 8th of September 2017, in cinemas throughout Australia. World Premiere at the Great Barrier Reef Film Festival on the 7th of September 2017.
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ZELOS 2017 Official Movie Trailer:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOFfFH0-R0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOFfFH0-R0M