{"id":46480,"date":"2026-07-08T07:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/46480\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T07:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:59:15","slug":"a-revelation-of-heart-holy-days-brings-warmth-humour-and-hope-to-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/46480\/","title":{"rendered":"A Revelation of Heart:\u00a0Holy Days\u00a0brings warmth, humour and hope to Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>HolyDays stars Judy Davis, Elijah Tamati, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver – photo courtesy of Kismet<\/p>\n

A heartwarming road trip through 1970s New Zealand, an acclaimed international cast and a story rich in humanity combine in\u00a0Holy Days, one of the standout Australian premieres at the 2026 Revelation Perth International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Directed by South African-born filmmaker Natt Bolt,\u00a0Holy Days\u00a0is described as a rare feel-good cinematic experience, blending heartfelt storytelling, eccentric humour and breathtaking New Zealand scenery into a film designed to be shared with an audience.<\/p>\n

Featuring screen favourites Miriam Margolyes, Judy Davis and Jacki Weaver, the film is based on the novel by celebrated New Zealand author Joy Cowley, whose encouragement gave Bolt the confidence to turn her story into his first feature film.<\/p>\n

Natt Bolt first met Cowley after adapting her acclaimed short story\u00a0The Silk\u00a0into a short film, and the pair quickly formed a close friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy became like my surrogate mum and my son\u2019s surrogate grandma,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I said maybe I should make a feature of one of her novels, she told me\u00a0Holy Days\u00a0was the one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she was going to trust me with it and she thought I could do it, then I guess I had to step up. It was a crazy first film.\u201d<\/p>\n

While staying true to the spirit of Cowley\u2019s novel, Natt Bold also wanted the adaptation to better reflect modern New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book didn\u2019t have a diverse set of characters,\u201d he said. \u201cBased on who I am, how I see the world and where we\u2019re at now, I wanted it to be representative of the true world around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working alongside M\u0101ori producer Tainui, Bolt reimagined one of the central characters as M\u0101ori, a decision he believes added greater emotional depth to the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me he\u2019d always imagined Brian was M\u0101ori, and suddenly everything just clicked,\u201d Bolt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant he wasn\u2019t simply travelling to see snow or searching for his mum \u2013 he was also journeying to his ancestral mountain. It brought a deeper sense of belonging and identity to the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a New Zealand-Canadian co-production,\u00a0Holy Days\u00a0embraces Indigenous perspectives while delivering a universally relatable story about family, friendship and finding where you belong.<\/p>\n

The film forms part of this year\u2019s Revelation Perth International Film Festival, which runs until July 19 across Luna Leederville, The Backlot, SAE Perth, Tribe Perth Kings Park and the State Library of Western Australia.<\/p>\n

The festival features more than 50 feature films and documentaries and almost 100 short films, showcasing everything from arthouse cinema and music documentaries to family animation and thought-provoking stories from around the world.<\/p>\n

Holy Days screening times<\/p>\n

Wednesday, July 15\u00a0\u2013 11am
Sunday, July 19\u00a0\u2013 3.15pm<\/p>\n

Both screenings will be held at\u00a0Luna Leederville.<\/p>\n

For festival information and tickets, visit the Revelation Perth International Film Festival website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A podcast of the interview will be available from July 24 at the Have a Go Cafe Podcast <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HolyDays stars Judy Davis, Elijah Tamati, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver – photo courtesy of Kismet A heartwarming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2988,6721,34760,335,26404],"class_list":["post-46480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-cinema","tag-film","tag-miriam-margoyles","tag-perth","tag-revelation-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}