It has been a long road for Australian viewers to see Typist Artist Pirate King. This gentle blend of comedy and drama first premiered back in 2022 before a limited UK release late last year, and now it makes its Australian festival premiere as part of 2024’s Europa Europa Film Festival in Sydney and Melbourne.

Writer/director Carol Morley has drawn inspiration from the life of English artist Audrey Amiss. A promising student at the Royal Academy of Arts, her developing mental illness led her to leave her training incomplete. She continued to create a wide array of art works, however, and upon her death in 2013 left behind an enormous trove of work. It is sad that her talent largely went unknown or underappreciated while she was still alive, but at least she has since received recognition and appreciation for her work in rapid, energetic sketches and collage.

Rather than attempt some form of dry, sequential biography in her film, Morley has instead invented for Amiss a road trip narrative that captures her art, aesthetic, and personal life. Typist Artist Pirate King sees Amiss (Monica Dolan) finding a newspaper advertisement promoting an open art exhibition and, inspired to showcase her work at last, manipulating her carer Sandra (Kelly McDonald) to drive her all the way from London to Sunderland to make an entry. The incidents and challenges met along the way may be episodic, but they are also wonderfully insightful. It is refreshing to see an artist’s life rendered in such an enjoyable way. The real-life Amiss’ art features prominently throughout the film, not only informing the action but enhancing the emotion of the piece too.

Morley has achieved a strong balance here in how Amiss’ mental illness is represented. More than anything it feels real: through Sandra’s point of view, Morley goes to great pains to separate the individual from their illness. Some moments are genuinely funny, and commendably without cruelty, while some feel deeply disturbing. More than anything else they are deliberately frustrating barriers, cutting Amiss off from the real world and blocking Sandra from emotionally reaching her. This is brought out by an excellent and well-informed lead performance by Monica Dolan as Amiss. It is a noisy, chaotic piece of acting, but always underscored with deep emotion. Kelly McDonald, an actor whose work I have always admired, keeps her own performance well-measured in response. Sandra’s slow shift from professional obligation to genuine friendship is realistic and believable.

There are imperfections. The journey runs perhaps a little too long with a few too many incidents along the way. A third act in Sunderland where Amiss reunites with her sister Dorothy (an excellent Gina McKee) pulls the film into a climax that does not really sit right with the rest of the narrative. Overall it is a warm, charming, and valuable film. Of Morley’s four feature-length works – including The Falling (2014) and Out of Blue (2018) – it is almost certainly her most accessible work. Available in Australia at last, one can only hope it finds the audience that it deserves.

The Europa Europa Film Festival is screening in Sydney and Melbourne from 15 February. Click here for more information.