Nude Tuesday

Their marriage on the brink of disaster, middle-aged Laura (Jackie van Beek) and Bruno (Australian actor Damon Herriman) take a punt on Ẅønđeulä, a couples retreat designed to strip down relationships — in all senses of the word 'strip'. Once there, the pair step outside their comfort zone as they experience intimacy seminars and nude hikes run by velvet-voiced guru Bjorg (a lascivious Jemaine Clement). Writer van Beek and director Armağan Ballantyne (The Strength of Water) upped the 'lunacy' ante by having their cast improvise in a made-up language, with subtitles added later by British comic Julia Davis (Nighty Night).

Able to switch off their brains from thinking about what it was they were actually saying, the cast could focus instead on the tone and emphasis of the emotional exchanges between each other ... they were also able to speed up scenes they thought were too slow by literally just cutting out bits of dialogue, knowing that it wouldn’t have the remotest impact on the story.

– Writer Alex Ritman on the advantages of actors talking in a fictional language, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 February 2022

Key Cast & Crew

Jemaine Clement

As: Bjorg

Damon Herriman

As: Bruno

Jackie van Beek

Writer, Original Story, Associate Producer, As: Laura

Armağan Ballantyne

Director, Original Story

Nick Batzias

Producer

Emma Slade

Producer