Sunday, 1 August 2.27pm
Van Diemen's Land
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    In 1822 eight convicts escaped from Macquarie Harbour, a penal settlement of ultra banishment and punishment, only to find a world they did not understand... the Australian wilderness. "Van Diemen's Land" dramatises the historic story of Alexander Pearce and his infamous journey into the Tasmanian wilderness.

    Rated: [ MA ]
    Cinema release: 24 Sep 2009
    Director: Jonathan auf der Heide
    Running time: 104 mins
    Stars: Arthur Angel, Paul Ashcroft, Oscar Redding, Mark Winter
    Links: IMDb
    Rotten Tomatoes

    What we say
    'Give me the axe and I'll carry the bag'

    Paul Stock, MovieFix  
    3.5 star rating
    There's an old joke about Australia's convict past that pokes fun at the wisdom of the British transporting their criminals to paradise. But the worst of Britain's thieves and murderers weren't sent directly to lounge about on Bondi Beach; they apparently ended up in Tasmania.

    In 1822, eight of those convicts attempted to escape from Tasmania's first penal station. Director Jonathan Auf Der Heide's "Van Diemen's Land" starkly details their journey through Sarah Island's inhospitable terrain and their descent into depravity.

    The word "cannibalism" is what sets "Van Diemen's Land" apart from your garden-variety prison-escape movie. Well, cannibalism and the absence of an intricate escape plan are the foremost differences, but the former offsets the latter to make for a gripping drama, even if you already know the ending.

    Oscar Redding and Arthur Angel both offer stoic, convincing performances as the lead escapees, Alexander Pearce and Robert Greenhill. And the cinematography nicely positions the landscape as more of a threat to the wellbeing of the escapees than any guards bothering to give chase may have done.

    Sometimes it's difficult to tell if the lush Tasmanian flora is green or grey and the bleakness underpins the desperate lack of food, setting up the film's proposition: How do you sleep soundly when (a) one of your companions has killed and eaten another; (b) they're minding the last axe; and (c) everyone's desperately hungry?

    The narrative of a drama based on a well-documented history obviously has a sense of the inevitable about it, but Auf Der Heide still manages to generate an appropriate level of suspense. And modern bushwalkers from the British Isles might think twice about entering Australia's wilderness without a packed lunch after seeing "Van Diemen's Land".

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