Evicted! A modern romance comes to Wagga for one-off screening and Q&A

The duo behind new dark comedy Evicted! have a knack for words, and coating hard to swallow messages in dark comedy.

Producer Sophie Saville and writer/director Rowan Devereux are bringing their award winning film on the road through regional NSW, stopping in Wagga for a Q&A and screening on April 26.

Evicted! follows four millennial housemates through the complexity of work, finances and personal relationships, while they desperately search for a new place to live after being booted by their landlord.

Mr Devereux said finding inspiration for the film was easy.

"I've been evicted a lot," he said.

"We were having a house cooling down party, and I remember everyone had similar stories. I realised it was a real generation thing.

"I wanted to tell a story about found family from rentals, because we're spending so much more time renting than our parents generation."

Ms Saville says the film is a bit like "The Castle meets Pulp Fiction" - a mix of ensemble driven narrative and parochial humour designed to make the harsh reality of life in the the urban rental market more palatable.

Both say the Australian comedy they grew up on - films like Muriel's Wedding - were big influences on the tone of the film. This dry humour comes out of Ms Saville and Mr Devereaux in conversation as easily as it does in Evicted!.

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"I've been living the disaster myself," Ms Saville said, referring to her own rental history.

Films like Evicted would traditionally be called coming of age films, typified by characters undergoing a personal journey that ends with a realisation it's time for them to move on to the next phase of their lives. The complexity of a story like this is in the real world, millennials aren't moving into the property owning class.

Labor party strategists credited this demographic shift with election victory in the recent NSW election. Traditional political theory holds that people become more conservative as they age, acquire assets, and have something worth conserving; not so at this stage for millennials.

Evicted taps into this political zeitgeist, presenting the plight of renters wrapped in humour like a worming tablet wrapped in cheese. People who are still experiencing housing security may see themselves reflected on screen, but the film may present the difficulties of modern housing in a different light to older audiences.

"People have been saying to us that it feels like a true representation of my life up on the screen," Ms Saville said.

"We'd say it's a story for our millennial generation, but it's a story for everyone too - everyone's rented at some point."

As to whether the success of Evicted will help them buy a home of their own, Mr Devereux answers in laconically Australian fashion.

"we spent our deposit on Evicted!," he said.

Evicted will screen in Wagga at The Curious Rabbit on April 26, followed by a Q&A with Sophie Saville and Rowan Devereux.

Tickets and more information available at: events.humanitix.com/evicted-a-modern-romance-film-screening

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