| Sat 20th Mar: | 1:00pm |
Screening at Star Cinema March 19 – 21 2021. Festival details here.
Genre: Drama. Dir: Tim Burstall.
D.H. Lawrence, one of the greatest modernist novelists, wrote Kangaroo as a semi-autobiographical account of his 1922 visit to Australia.
Pioneer Australian director Tim Burstall’s adaptation casts Colin Friels as mild-mannered English novelist Richard Somers and Judy Davis as his wife Harriet (Davis delivers a brilliant, AFI award-winning performance). The Somers leave Europe in the early ’20s for a new life in Australia. The couple are captivated by the openness and hospitality with which they are received, but they are soon enveloped in a web of political intrigue, adultery and murder as they become involved in battles between the rising trade unions and an underground fascist group led by “Kangaroo”, the code-name for its charismatic but dangerous leader.
Kangaroo was Burstall’s finest theatrical film and through its AFI award-winning achievements in performance and period costume design, stands as a testament to a remarkable career.
Winner of two 1986 AFI awards including Best Actress.