FESTIVAL ’90 : Screenings Present Pacific Rim Cultures

Night Cries

Australia Today, noon, AFI, 2021 N. Western Ave., Hollywood; 7 p.m, Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Tracey Moffat’s piercing vignette of an aboriginal woman coping in a desert cul-de-sac with the nerve-fraying illness of her mother. A mood piece in which the Outback is recreated mostly on the soundstage--in shockingly vivid primary colors and images that suggest a Douanier Rousseau painting. Cobalt-blue skies, painted backdrops, a purringly ingratiating gospel singer, flashbacks to the ocean and a present full of sweat and misery--Moffat weaves it all together with erratic but sometimes genuine power.