Alphabet Lane

An isolated couple reinvigorate their relationship with parallel imaginary correspondences in this offbeat exploration of isolation, creativity, and the mysteries of love.

Anna (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Lone Wolf, MIFF 2021) and Jack (Nicholas Denton, Dangerous Liaisons) have just moved from Sydney to a remote corner of New South Wales. As they settle into life in the middle of nowhere, completely removed from family and friends, and working punishing hours at their respective jobs as a doctor and an engineer, their relationship begins to suffer. When Jack claims to have made a new friend, a farmer named ‘Joe’, Anna invents a wife for him: ‘Michelle’. What begins as an in-joke born from boredom soon becomes a lifeline as the couple start exchanging letters with the imaginary pair – but this new method of connection will carry some unsettling twists and turns.

Shooting much of the film on a family cattle farm in the Monaro region of New South Wales, in the house he grew up in, first-time feature director James Litchfield draws on his strong affinity for the landscape and a pointed sense of place for this exploration of the private universes lovers create for themselves. With a unique, playful score by Mark Bradshaw (You Won’t Be Alone, MIFF 2022) – which utilises the humming of actors Ben Whishaw (Peter Hujar’s Day, MIFF 2025) and Alice Englert (Bad Behaviour, MIFF 2023) – Alphabet Lane is an impressive film from a distinctively Australian voice.