Wanna know what your other half is thinking? It’s an out-of-body experience, guaranteed!
A new Queensland-made feature film explores the chaos, confusion and comedy of swapping bodies … and genders.
Among the encouraging number of locally produced feature films that screened at the Gold Coast Film Festival recently was Carnal Vessels. It’s a sometimes-edgy body-swap comedy-drama with a few of the familiar tropes of the subgenre and some fresh turns thrown in.
Arnijka Larcombe-Weate and Daniel Simpson play Liv and Alex who, after swapping bodies, are Alex and Liv. They have been in an indefinable relationship, but when they start discussing where it’s all going and it seems they might actually be in love, boom! – magic happens and they’re in each other’s bodies to learn how the other half lives, thinks and feels.
Liv is a directionless, unemployed person who relies on her well-to-do mum (Astrid Wells) for everything, while Alex is a cemetery groundskeeper. Oh, and there’s a cadaver thief on the loose. You might recognise Larcombe-Weate from her regular role in children’s TV series, The Bureau of Magical Things. Simpson appeared in the web series Two Weeks, which premiered at the Brisbane Queer Festival.
The writer and director of Carnal Vessels is Angus Kirby, who’s previously had experience with short films. He says that even though body-swap stories have been done before, he felt that the concept hadn’t been fully exploited.
“I had a lot of ideas that got me excited,” Kirby says. “It felt like a very open playground. I had a lot of ideas really, really quickly. It just felt like I had a way into it and that helped me with the structure.”
As for the film’s title, Kirby says “it felt a little provocative, a little naughty, and that’s a great reflection of the movie”. “It was a bit of a strategic thing to grab someone’s eye, but it also sums up the movie – a little bit risqué and dangerous feeling.”
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Kirby is referring to the fact that a large part of the characters’ new experiences in other bodies involves discovering their new bodies in a sensual way and taking them for a run with sexual partners. Alex is shocked to learn Liv has been sleeping with another guy (Dylan Stumer), but when he meets the other guy while in her body he realises the other guy is actually really nice.
The film’s producer Mihir Chakrapani has also had experience in short films, as well as music videos and ads, with this being his first foray into feature making. He’s thrilled that Carnal Vessels was accepted into the Gold Coast Film Festival, thanks to the film’s Brisbane-based distributor, Radioactive Pictures.
As any aspiring filmmaker knows, securing a distributor is a hugely important step if you want the film to get out into the world so people can see it.
“We’d actually signed with Radioactive Pictures last year before the film was finally completed,” Chakrapani says. “We got in touch with them and they loved the film and saw the potential, not just here but in the US as well.”
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With state and federal film funding agencies receiving far more applications for investment than the money available, Chakrapani decided that financing through private investors was the way to go.
“That was the only way for us to do it and it helped us across the line,” he says. “We’d made shorts but weren’t really filmmakers with a credit like this on the board. We saved money where we could and knew a couple of the right people.”
As with most low-budget indie films, the filmmakers called in quite a lot of favours.
“It was the generosity of the cast and crew which helped us, with most locations belonging to them or other people we knew,” Chakrapani says. He adds that at 80-minutes long, and with modest production needs, Carnal Vessels is a good stepping stone into the feature film space.
The locations in the film are mostly around Indooroopilly and Bardon, with parts also filmed around Camp Hill. The houses featured are from several suburbs including West End and New Farm.
‘We were able to trust both her and Daniel to fall into their own roles but also each other’s roles’
The producer is full of praise for the two central actors.
“Arnijka is just such a fearless performer,” Chakrapani says. “We were able to trust both her and Daniel to fall into their own roles but also each other’s roles. The whole film wouldn’t have worked without them being able to do that.”
Kirby reiterates how challenging it was to take on the other actor’s role – as if that person is in a new body of the opposite sex.
“To me, the characters learn very different things,” he says. “The first thing is that very obvious journey of empathy. The movie is about them glimpsing the world outside of their relationship that they hadn’t seen before. They gain a perspective about what they have with each other.”
With the festival premiere under their belt, Chakrapani and Kirby are looking forward to Carnal Vessels’ Australian TVOD (Transactional Video On Demand) release on May 15, when you will be able to view it on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. There will be event theatrical screenings in Australian cities and in 2026 the film will screen on the Nine Network, with future streaming details still to be negotiated.
Carnal Vessels TVOD release is May 15 for YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.