You always hope for a gem at a film festival – a film you know nothing about, that you have no particular hopes for but that transports you somewhere transcendent.

Directed by Platon Theodoris but filled to the brim with Nitin Vengurlekar, The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour at first feels just a bit too whimsically quirky. Vengurlekar plays Rabindranath and his alter ego, Neville Umbrellaman, a twitchy late night radio host broadcasting from a garage somewhere surrounded by thrift shop art and tchotchkes. He has a particular knack for fast-paced existential and mundane musings and his mellow voice drifts out to the many lonely folk awake in the small hours.

Guests come to be interviewed or play music and we start to realise that each one has an alter ego that plays a role in Rabindranath’s life. I won’t tell you how as it is a bittersweet realisation that then permeates the rest of the narrative, lifting it from quirky to profound. Most memorable is his maybe love interest Sabrina (Sabrina Chan D’Angelo) who provides a unique performance that may be the best dance I have seen so far at MIFF. And she plays the ukulele.

Interwoven are beautifully framed moments as Rabindranath / Neville visits some of Australia’s ‘big things’ and natural and urban landscapes. There is also a recurring jazz band that appear in Neville’s garage and provide the mellow music for the show.

It feels like a love letter to back yard and back country Australia and to life itself.

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Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.