According to Variety, Oscar nominees Sandra Huller (The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall) and Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) have signed on to star in True-ish, the latest directorial effort from Goran Stolevski, the filmmaker known for Housekeeping for Beginners. The satirical drama is now in production, and it centres on Janet Paine (Huller), a Manhattan public relations executive who specialises in smear campaigns and finds herself relocated to the Balkans. Her new role as director of outreach at a "peace lab" ostensibly involves noble work but actually requires her to create fake news targeting political regimes around the European Union. The film's synopsis reveals that Janet, driven by a desire to atone for past misdeeds and prove her initiative, escalates her actions by staging fabricated atrocity footage, leading to increasingly severe international repercussions.
True-ish director Stolevski, a Macedonian-Australian filmmaker recognised for his unique narrative style, is fresh from the success of Housekeeping for Beginners, which earned an award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. His previous works include You Won't Be Alone, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was Australia's entry for the Academy Awards, and Of an Age, which opened the Melbourne Film Festival.
Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings of Causeway Films, Stolevski's longtime collaborators, are producing True-ish. The film is set to go on floors in Eastern Europe early next year, with financing through support from Australian and European federal and state funding agencies, as well as local tax incentives.
In a joint statement, the film's producers said, "True-ish represents the perfect combination of Causeway’s consistent aims to support outstanding talent and produce bold independent films with great breakout potential." They lauded Goran as "one of Australia’s most exciting filmmaking voices" and expressed their honor in collaborating with him for the fourth time, alongside a "powerhouse cast," in order to make a film that will be poignant, relevant, wildly humorous, and deeply moving.
