Joan Chen (Twin Peaks) delivers a heartbreaking performance in Tony Ayres’s autobiographical immigrant tale set in 60s and 70s Melbourne suburbia.

Upon meeting an Australian sailor in Hong Kong, Rose (Chen) – a mother of two who works as a singer in smoke-filled nightclubs – moves to Melbourne. After they are married, she attempts affairs with various men before landing on Joe, a handsome and much younger man. As Rose emerges out of her cheongsam and into the cardigans and pearls that were expected in the culturally shifting suburbs of the time, her life begins to fray and her relationship with her kids grows strained. Can Rose ever escape her traumatic past to build the better future she left home for?

While Ayres (Cut Snake, MIFF Premiere Fund 2014) is now best known as the producing powerhouse behind internationally acclaimed titles such as The Slap, Clickbait and Glitch, he first emerged onto the screen landscape as a director of deeply personal films. This heart-wrenching account of growing up in Australia – told from the perspective of Ayres’ stand-in, Rose’s young son Tom – is a perfect encapsulation of his storytelling talents. Beautifully made and winning eight AFI Awards (including for direction, screenplay, cinematography and production design), The Home Song Stories is a rare breed of locally made, gorgeously poignant filmmaking; 15 years on, this affecting tour de force has lost none of its raw power.

“A film of sheer beauty … Ayres has a real artist’s eye, and he makes this bittersweet 1970s suburban niche both exotic and familiar.” – The Movie Show (2007)