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Cosi
HDLewis is a young Sydney amateur theater director at his first experience: he is offered a job with a Governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution for mentally ill. His project is ove...
Shine
HDPianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
Love Serenade
HDIn Sunray, a backwater town on Australia's Murray River, there's little to do but fish or listen to the local radio station. D.J. Ken Sherry arrives from the hustle of Brisbane to run the station; he's mid-40s, detached, thrice divorced, hatchet faced. But both sisters next door find him attractive: awkward Dimity, only 20, who works in a Chinese restaurant with few patrons, and perky Vicki-Ann, a hairdresser with a hope chest who invents a happy future with Sherry based on little but his arrival. First Dimity then Vicki-Ann spend the night with Ken, one concluding he's her boy friend, the other her fiance. Then Dimity begins to smell something fishy.
Kiss or Kill
HDTwo young scam artists rob their drugged victims after the woman is picked up in bars and taken to a hotel room. The only problem is that their latest victim dies. Looking at his stuff, they suddenly find a video tape with a former athlete sexually involved with a young boy. The woman contacts the athlete and sets off a series of murders in which they are incriminated and a chase across Australia led by the athlete, the police, and an aborigine tracker.
Paws
HDAlex knows the whereabouts of a stashed-away fortune of $1 million. The mysterious Anja murders him, but he's transferred clues of location of the cash onto computer disk that he gives to his dog called PC, who has to find a friend of Alex, Susie. PC was taken in by 14 year old Zac and his family who are neighbours of Susie where he creates an application that translates his barking into plain English. Zac allows PC to choose a voice with a Scottish accent and made a portable translator with a PDA and a microphone in a bow-tie so he can talk away from the computer. Anja traced him to the neighbourhood so now PC has to help Zac and Susie's daughter Samantha find the million dollars before Anja does.
Oscar and Lucinda
HDIn mid-1800s England, Oscar is a young Anglican priest, a misfit and an outcast, but with the soul of an angel. As a boy, even though from a strict Pentecostal family, he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England. Lucinda is a teen-aged Australian heiress who has an almost desperate desire to liberate her sex from the confines of the male-dominated culture of the Australia of that time. She buys a glass factory and has a dream of building a church made almost entirely of glass, and then transporting it to Bellingen, a remote settlement on the north coast. Oscar and Lucinda meet on a ship going to Australia; once there, they are for different reasons ostracized from society, and as a result "join forces" together. Oscar and Lucinda are both passionate gamblers, and Lucinda bets Oscar her entire inheritance that he cannot transport the glass church to the Outback safely. Oscar accepts her wager, and this leads to the events that will change both their lives forever.
Head On
HDA 19 year old Greek Australian youth struggles with his sexual identity and has one clumsy heterosexual and several homosexual encounters.
Bootmen
HDBorn charmer Sean Okden gave up tap-dancing when he started working in the steel mill, but as that's going down the hill he grabs his chance being the only candidate in his coastal Australian home town Newcastle selected for a Sidney show. Being sacked soon just for a row with the arrogant lead dancer, he returns to find his girlfriend in bed with his brother Mitchell, and decides to start his own tap-dance group wearing hardhats, which he soon gives an original edge when the steel mill inspires him to weld metal on their shoes and dance on industrial steel, so it the metallic acoustics fit well with a local rock group. Financing their local debut is so expensive, even when the mill allows them free us of its premises -opening some acrobatic perspectives- while even his father won't allow him to touch his mother's inheritance for the project, that the 'Bootmen' need to steal the cheerleaders' podium in a televised sports match to get media attention. Sean generously helps his brother when attacked, at the price of their motorbikes, only to learn his assailant Huey and Mitch rival as car (part) thieves, but still allows him into the group - only to see his fatal fall during an attack by Huey's goons. Even when the mill announces phasing out Sean continues, now as a benefit for the sacked workers' retraining.
He Died with a Felafel in His Hand
HDA search for love, meaning and bathroom solitude. Danny goes through a series of shared housing experiences in a succession of cities on the east coast of Australia. Together these vignettes form a narrative that is surprisingly reflective.
Lantana
HDThe intertwined stories of a loosely tied set of mostly emotionally damaged individuals in Sydney are told. Police detective Leon Zat and his wife Sonja Zat probably still love each other but have not stated to each other the problems that have invaded their marriage. Those problems not only affect their relationship, but also the way they parent their two teenage sons. Leon's single partner, Detective Claudia Weis, can probably most clearly see those problems, but is not equipped to be a good informal counselor to him in she considering the eye contact with another regular at the diner she frequents as being a somewhat committed relationship. A bundle of repressed emotions, Leon vents through mostly inappropriate acts of aggression, and having just embarked in an extramarital affair with Jane O'May, the recently separated woman in the same salsa dance class as him and Sonja. Jane initiated that separation from her husband, Pete O'May, in coming to the realization one day that she no longer loved him for whatever reason. Jane still craves human connection, she who may view her affair with Leon differently than him. The O'Mays' marital problems affect their next door neighbors, Nik and Paula D'Amato, who are friends with both and do not want to betray one in helping the other. Nik and Paula are outwardly happy despite their financial problems, with unemployed Nik looking after their three preschool age children while Paula works double shifts to put food on the table. Regardless, Nik still needs his respite away from that role as stay-at-home dad. Sonja's emotional outlet is being in therapy with Dr. Valerie Somers, something that she has not told Leon. Valerie is overcoming her own grief in her then eleven year old daughter, Eleanor Knox, having been found murdered eighteen months ago. While she wrote a just published book about Eleanor as a process to deal with her grief, Valerie's husband, law professor John Knox, quietly says he will do anything to support her. The murder has undoubtedly affected their marriage in a certain emotional and physical distance having formed between them. Among Valerie's clients is gay Patrick Phelan, who is dealing with the extramarital affair he is having with a man in a heterosexual marriage. Valerie's own problems with John affect the way she deals with Patrick, who can see her dislike of him but may not understand the full extent of the reason. These collective stories become even more intertwined when one within this collective goes missing, foul play suspected. What happens in the investigation is affected by the emotional issues each of the players is dealing with beyond the fact of that person being missing.
The Man Who Sued God
HDSir Billy Connolly plays Steve Myers, a lawyer who became a fisherman from frustration. When his one piece of property, his boat, is struck by lightning and destroyed, he is denied insurance money because it was "an act of God". He re-registers as a lawyer and sues the insurance company and the church, under the guise of God, defending himself. The accident leads him to a friendship and eventual relationship with a journalist, Anna Redmond (Judy Davis).
Bang Bang Baby
HDA small town teenager in the 1960s believes her dreams of becoming a famous singer will come true when her rock star idol gets stranded in town. But a leak in a nearby chemical plant that is believed to be causing mass mutations threatens to turn her dream into a nightmare.teenagertimeframe 1960sPlot summaryAdd synopsis
Rabbit-Proof Fence
HDWestern Australia, 1931. Government policy includes taking half-white, half-Aboriginal children from their Aboriginal mothers and sending them a thousand miles away to what amounts to indentured servitude, "to save them from themselves." Molly, Daisy, and Grace (two sisters and a cousin who are fourteen, ten, and eight) arrive at their Gulag and promptly escape, under Molly's lead. For several days they walk north, following a fence that keeps rabbits from settlements, eluding a native tracker and the regional constabulary. Their pursuers take orders from the government's "Chief Protector of Aborigines", A.O. Neville, blinded by Anglo-Christian certainty, evolutionary world view, and conventional wisdom. Can the girls survive?
The Hard Word
HDThree fraternal bank robbers languishing in jail, discover a profitable (if not dodgy) way to spend their time. Crime can most certainly pay, if you "know wot I mean?" However when sex and greed rear-up between the good crims and the bad cops, the consequences are both bizarre and fatal.
Crackerjack
HDWhen dwindling membership and increasing overheads makes a local bowling club and prime candidate for a takeover, it's all hands on deck to save the club, in what turns into an epic battle where young meets old, greed meets good and people rise to the occasion in extraordinary circumstances.
Garage Days
HDA coming-of-age comedy about a young Sydney band trying to get a foothold in the competitive world of rock n' roll. After the band's first gig is a colossal failure, the lead singer takes it upon himself to go out and pursue the most successful rock manager in the country. Meanwhile the other members of the band continue to deal with the kind of every day life issues that can ultimately tear a band apart. It may be the dawn of a new millennium but it's still a long way to the top if you want to rock n' roll.
Ned Kelly
HDThough recognized for heroism as a lad, Ned Kelly can not escape the stigma of being the eldest of a brood sired by a known criminal. In days when an arrest equaled guilt and a conviction, his unfair imprisonment for horse thievery puts him steadfast, in the eyes of Victorian police, on the wrong side of things for life. With a sister unable to dissuade the unwanted advances of Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned, his brother Dan, and friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart soon find themselves labeled "an outlaw gang" by the less-than-honorable constable. It's a designation they're apt to live up to after Ned's mother is unfairly arrested and sentenced to three years hard labor. In retaliation, the Kelly Gang strikes out against the oppressive Victorian government, with ultimately tragic results and passage into Australian folklore.
Japanese Story
HDAgainst the background of an Australian desert, Sandy, a geologist, and Hiromitsu, a Japanese businessman, play out a story of human inconsequence in the face of the blistering universe. The end of the journey leaves no one capable of going back to where they started from.
Little Fish
HDIn Sydney, Tracey Heart is a thirty-two years old manager of a video shop, an ex-heroin addict whose been clean for four years. She is trying to raise $40,000 to buy a shop for computer games next door to the rental and to become partner of her boss; but based on her negative records, the banks deny the loan. Tracey takes care of her junkie stepfather Lionel Dawson, unsuccessfully trying to make him quit his heroin habit. When her former boyfriend Jonny returns from Vancouver, Tracey's mother Janelle fears a fall for Tracey, while she blames Jonny for the car accident where her son Ray lost a leg. When Ray and Jonny associate with Moss, the assistant of the retired criminal boss Bradley 'The Jockey' Thompson, in drug dealing, Tracey is convinced by Jonny to join them and raise the necessary money for her business during the weekend.
On a Clear Day
HDAfter decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel. As Frank plunges headlong into his new daily life, his astonished friends are swept along with him. Prodded by stalwart fish-and-chips shop owner Chan, the men support Frank, train him - and keep their goal secret from his wife and son. Frank is unable to confide in those closest to him, but as the big day and moment of truth draw near, there is a sea change. Frank's family confronts him, and he realizes that he must repair his strained family ties. As Frank and those closest to him discover - or re-discover - reserves of love and compassion, he realizes that he is also swimming from one part of his life to another.
Hooligans
HDUnjustly expelled from Harvard when a stash of cocaine is found in his possession, Matt moves to London to live with his sister and her husband Steve. He is quickly introduced to Steve's chirpy, cock-sure younger brother Pete. Initially, Pete is reluctant to get acquainted with Matt and allow him to tread around the capital city with him because he may be seen by others as an 'outsider', but after a heavy drinking session with him and his mates he quickly changes his opinion of him. On the way back from a football match, Matt is viciously accosted by a gang of Birmingham City thugs, until Pete and his friends step in and save him. It is from here that Matt learns the truth about Pete and his friends- they are football hooligans, operating the GSE (Green Street Elite) 'firm.' Initially afraid of the violence, Matt soon ends up becoming as desensitized to it as his new found friends - but as events roll on, suspicion, shocking revelations and unsettled scores combine to a devastating climax where London's most fierce football rivals - Millwall and West Ham United - are set to go head to head.
Wolf Creek
HDThree backpackers travel into the Australian Outback only to find themselves stranded at Wolf Creek crater. Once there, they are encountered by a bushman, Mick Taylor, who offers them a ride back to his place. Little do the three know that their adventure into the Outback would be a complete nightmare after the backpackers find a way to escape.
Irresistible
HDSophie Hartley is convinced that she is being stalked. She becomes increasingly certain that her husband's beautiful co-worker, Mara, wants her children, her husband and her life. But no one believes Sophie. Forced to prove her sanity, Sophie grows increasingly paranoid - but is she imagining things? Sophie becomes completely caught up in her obsession, turning stalker herself - and makes a discovery more frightening than her worst fear.
Kokoda
HDA bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.
Jindabyne
HDJindabyne, in the southeast section of New South Wales, was moved to its current site from its original site upon the building of a hydroelectric dam, the resulting reservoir, Lake Jindabyne, which now sits atop the original townsite. Among its residents are a group of friends who socialize together: married Stewart and Claire, a service station owner/former race car driver and a pharmacist respectively, and their school age son Tommy; married Carl and Jude, who have been guardians to their granddaughter Caylin-Calandria, Tommy's friend and disruptive classmate, ever since her mother's passing; Rocco and his new aborigine girlfriend, Carmel, a teacher at Tommy and Caylin-Calandria's school; and young parents Billy and Elissa, Billy who works casually as a mechanic for Stewart. Despite Stewart and Claire loving each other, there has long been disharmony in their household. Claire left for eighteen months following Tommy's birth due to post-partum depression. Then, Stewart's mother moved to Jindabyne to look after Tommy, but still undermines Claire as a parent. And Claire doesn't like Stewart's closed emotional state, she who just wants them all to connect as human beings. As they do every year, the four men embark on a multi-day fly fishing trip to a remote section of the river. Shortly upon their arrival, Stewart discovers the dead body of a young aborigine woman in the river. What the men decide to do, or not to do, ends up receiving the wrath of general populace, but especially that of the aborigine community. It also has the potential to tear the friendship among this group, as well as Stewart and Claire's marriage, apart. Through it all, Claire, in that want for human connection, does what she believes is the right thing, which is not always met with what is her intent.
Macbeth
HDA contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" set in the ganglands of Melbourne.
Gone
HDA contemporary psychological thriller in which a young British couple travelling through the Australian outback becomes involved with a mysterious and charismatic American whose motive for imposing his friendship upon them becomes increasingly suspect and sinister.
3 Way Junction
HDSuffering from a massive career disappointment, London architect Carl Walters travels to the grand dunes of the Namibian Desert to escape, but instead he finds himself stranded alone in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a ride that never comes.
The New Romantic
HDFrustrated with the lack of chivalrous guys her own age, a college senior gives up on dating for love to date an older man in exchange for gifts instead.
Edge of Winter
HDElliot Baker seizes the chance to develop a better relationship with his sons when his ex-wife, Karen, and her new husband take a vacation and leave the boys with him. What starts as a bonding opportunity turns into a nightmarish adventure when they get stranded in a deserted cabin near the lake as night falls and a snowstorm rages. Bradley, 15, and Caleb, 12, quickly learn more about their father and what they truly mean to him in this gripping tale of family and survival
The Final Countdown
HDIn 1980, an assistant in the Department of Defense, Warren Lasky, is assigned by his mysterious chief Richard Tideman to visit the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz commanded by Capt. Matthew Yelland as an observer of the routines. Lasky learns that Commander Air Group (CAG) Richard T. Owens has a great knowledge of history. Out of the blue, the vessel faces a weird storm and they find they have traveled back in time to the eve of the attack of Pearl Harbor on 06 December 1941. When the two Japanese Zeros attack the motorboat of Senator Samuel Chapman, the crew of the Nimitz rescues the senator and his assistant Laurel Scott. But Lasky soon learns the senator had disappeared on that day and Capt. Matthew Yelland is planning to attack the Japanese. Will these actions create a time paradox?
Pink Wall
HDSix scenes. Six years. Six moments that shaped the relationship of Jenna and Leon. Pink Wall examines what defines us, the pressures of gender expectations, and our perpetual struggle between life and ambition.