MAGIK + ROSE
Director: Vanessa Alexander
Feature film | NZ | 2000
92 min
34th Hof International Film Festival
2000
In the sleepy town of Hokitika, a month before the Wild Food Festival. Magik, a dodgy city fortune-teller, descends upon the local camping ground in all her eccentric glory, parking her housetruck near to Jackson, a snail-farming mathematician. Making cash from gullible locals is the excuse for Magik’s visit, but not the reason. Unsuccessfully incognito, she tries to photograph the daughter she gave up for adoption 15 years ago.
Rose processes photos of other people’s children and sells condoms at the local chemist, in-between daily attempts to impregnate herself – with the waning assistance of her husband Stuart. Friendship between Magik and Rose growns when Rose seeks hope from the spiritual realm and Magik tells her what she wants to hear – children are definitely in Rose’s future. She’s wrong.