 |
An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.
Set in mid 1950's Australia, with the fear of Communism in the air and the country's farmlands overrun by a plague of rabbits, the film depicts a long hot summer seen through the eyes and over-active imagination of 9 year old Celia.
Shaken by the death of her beloved grandmother, Celia finds herself adrift between the cruel games and rituals of childhood and the incomprehensible world of grown-ups. With monstrous creatures stalking her dreams by night, those imagined terrors blur by day with the brutal reality of the adult world leading to tragic and shocking consequences.
Ann Turner's refreshingly unsentimental debut feature is a dark fable of childhood's end to rank alongside "Lord of the Flies", "The 400 Blows" and "Stand by Me".
|