BATHING FRANKY: Stars Maria Venuti (Franky) and Henry Szeps (Franky’s son Rodney).
It’s Maria Venuti like you’ve never seen her before. Decrepit and ageing, feeble and frail.
Usually clothed in colourful garb, Venuti has been transformed to play an invalid woman in the Hunter film Bathing Franky.
Venuti and fellow Bathing Franky star Henri Szeps will visit Dungog and Maitland this weekend for screenings of the Hunter-based film.
Filmed in Dungog, Maitland and Newcastle, and written by Gresford farmer Michael Winchester, Bathing Franky is the story of ex-con Steve (Shaun Goss), a wildly irrepressible older man Rodney (Szeps) and his mother Franky (Venuti).
“Bathing Franky is about hope, forgiveness and the double-edged sword of imagination and fantasy as a means of dealing with the harsher aspects of life,” Winchester said.
Bathing Franky will be distributed by Titan View and has been entered in at least 15 film festivals across the globe including Cannes.
Bathing Franky will be screened at James Theatre, Dungog, on Friday, and at Maitland Reading Cinemas on Sunday at 2pm.