All These Creatures untangles dark presence of family dysfunction

Charles William’s award-winning short All These Creatures looks at the growing menace of a family torn apart by mental illness.

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Petersham filmmaker Charles Williams dug deep to drag the devastating impacts of mental illness into light in his award-winning short All These Creatures.

The short has picked up more than 20 awards on the global stage including the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Short Film Palme d’Or and both the Dendy Live Action Short Award and the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director at this year’s Sydney Film Festival.

All These Creatures director Charles Williams. Picture: Mathew Lynn

All These Creature’s storyline centres around an adolescent boy, Tempest (Yared Scott) who is struggling to understand a mysterious infestation that starts with bugs, “all these creatures”, in his suburban backyard and moves to the mental unravelling of his father, Mal (Mandela Mathai).

Tempest parallels this growing dark presence to his dad being “infested” by a “strange sickness”.

All These Creature’s director Charles Williams with actors Mandela Mathia and Yared Scott.

For Williams the film represents a departure from comedy to “something that is a little closer to the bone”.

He wrote the script after the birth of his first daughter, Eve who is now two years-old, and was motivated by a desire to reflect something of his own experience.

“I wanted to do something dramatic, something more personal,” he said.

“It is the story of someone looking back on their adolescence and trying to pick apart their memories.”

All These Creatures took home the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival last year.

He said the story touched on not just one person’s story but more widely how we, as adults, reassess our relationship with our family.

“It is looking at wider ideas of how responsible we all are for our own behaviour and how we move ahead with our lives and get compassion for the people who have damaged us,” he said.

■ All These Creature’s run on the international short circuit continues on July 12-14 at the Periferia dell’impero International Short Film Festival in Italy