Private Project

Lorikeet

Esme Fournier has decided to be euthanised. The decision has been a long and painful process and there were a hundred steps that brought her and her family to this strange cold clinic with a yellow bed in the corner and a couch covered in plastic.

For her sons the reality of what's about to happen is setting in. Mick, her oldest, is fussing around with paperwork trying to make it all go smoothly, Will is trying to laugh it off and Connor, her youngest, is simply trying to stop himself from spiralling into despair.

When the forms are all signed and the moment is fast approaching, Will makes one joke too many and Connor snaps, fleeing the clinic and the reality of his mother’s death just around the corner.

Outside the clinic, Connor stares at a fallen bird’s nest as Will comes to comfort him. Will finally opens up about the pain he feels "We just have to lose and be alright with it, I'm almost all the way there, it's just a little bit of me that's lying."

This is just enough to get them both back inside and finally, as a family, they hold hands as Esme drinks a small cup of liquid barbiturates and says her last goodbye.

  • Lincoln Charles Vickery
    Director
  • Seamus PM Quinn
    Director
  • Seamus PM Quinn
    Writer
  • Lincoln Charles Vickery
    Writer
  • Valentin Lang
    Producer
  • Lincoln Charles Vickery
    Producer
  • Seamus PM Quinn
    Producer
  • Joanna Briant
    Key Cast
    "Esme"
  • Will Bartolo
    Key Cast
    "Connor"
  • Will McNeill
    Key Cast
    "Will"
  • David Adlam
    Key Cast
    "Mick"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 29, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Lincoln Charles Vickery, Seamus PM Quinn

Seamus is a Mountains born writer and director working on unceded Gadigal Land. His work is informed first and foremost by the lessons his late mother taught him about the beauty of underdogs. He studied screen writing at Vancouver film school and acting at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Lincoln Vickery is a Perth born writer, actor and director working on unceded Gadigal land. He studied at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, is a published playwright and has appeared in front of the camera on big and small screen.

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Director Statement

The way you feel being a part of the assisted death of a loved one has a quality of grief all it’s own. The conflict you feel needing to be there with all your heart in their last hours and the painful truth that you wish you were anywhere else. It is not often that in a film you have the opportunity to see a family confront death with nothing but love. Lorikeet is our attempt to show that.