Julian Vares

In a small conservative town called Greymouth, Sam turns to the colour pink. Breathing new life into an old Anglican church, he creates his home Gloria - a shimmering, bedazzled, hot pink sanctuary. Unlike traditional churches in many ways, Gloria is not filled with people. Instead, he hand crafts paper-mâché parishioners to keep him company, filling the space with companions of his own making. Gloria is a portrait of radical self-expression, quiet isolation, and the enduring life of unfinished art. Is art ever truly finished? Or does it keep evolving like the people who make it?

18-year-old Elliot lives and works on a small family-owned New Zealand dairy farm. He meanders out at dawn towards a herd of feeding cows where his attempt to take the wheel for the morning’s feed-out run is quickly overruled by his overbearing father. Elliot’s resentment grows with his increasingly apparent lack of autonomy and respect on the farm. A routine grocery trip sees Elliot bump into Laura, an enigmatic checkout operator and love interest, who pockets Elliot a pouch of tobacco on the sly, directing him to collect her later on that afternoon.

In a small conservative town called Greymouth, Sam turns to the colour pink. Breathing new life into an old Anglican church, he creates his home Gloria - a shimmering, bedazzled, hot pink sanctuary. Unlike traditional churches in many ways, Gloria is not filled with people. Instead, he hand crafts paper-mâché parishioners to keep him company, filling the space with companions of his own making. Gloria is a portrait of radical self-expression, quiet isolation, and the enduring life of unfinished art. Is art ever truly finished? Or does it keep evolving like the people who make it?

18-year-old Elliot lives and works on a small family-owned New Zealand dairy farm. He meanders out at dawn towards a herd of feeding cows where his attempt to take the wheel for the morning’s feed-out run is quickly overruled by his overbearing father. Elliot’s resentment grows with his increasingly apparent lack of autonomy and respect on the farm. A routine grocery trip sees Elliot bump into Laura, an enigmatic checkout operator and love interest, who pockets Elliot a pouch of tobacco on the sly, directing him to collect her later on that afternoon.

18-year-old Elliot lives and works on a small family-owned New Zealand dairy farm. He meanders out at dawn towards a herd of feeding cows where his attempt to take the wheel for the morning’s feed-out run is quickly overruled by his overbearing father. Elliot’s resentment grows with his increasingly apparent lack of autonomy and respect on the farm. A routine grocery trip sees Elliot bump into Laura, an enigmatic checkout operator and love interest, who pockets Elliot a pouch of tobacco on the sly, directing him to collect her later on that afternoon.