Rob says, ‘We’re almost at the end of our Australian Film season this August, so this Wednesday 27th, at 7:30pm at Queen St Brewhouse, I’ll be screening a legendary and previously lost film called “Wake in Fright” (18) (1971), directed by Ted Kotcheff (Rambo: First Blood, 1982) and written by Evan Jones. The film stars Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, and Sylvia Kay. Initially released as “Outback” outside Australia, “Wake in Fright” is a psychological drama about an English school teacher stuck in a rural Australian town surrounded by the overly friendly and sinister townspeople. Despite positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure upon its first release and rediscovered by audiences when its original negative was found and restored in 2009.

In Tiboonda, a remote town in the Australian outback, a young middle-class British school teacher called John Grant (Gary Bond) leaves for the Christmas holidays to see his girlfriend Robyn but stops at a mining town called Bundanyabba (nicknamed “The Yabba” by locals) to catch a train to Sydney. When John arrives in The Yabba, he is befriended by a local policeman, Jack Crawford (Chips Rafferty), at a pub who keeps tempting him with alcoholic drinks and takes him to an illegal game of two-up. John places a bet and wins but goes back to increase his chances and loses everything. Now stranded in the town of Yabba, John finds himself in the company of Clarence “Doc” Tydon (Donald Pleasence), a vagrant alcoholic and former medical practitioner who introduces him to the savage and degrading lifestyle in the outback.

“Wake in Fright” faced controversy when it was first released with its portrayal of life in the outback, e.g., binge drinking and gambling and a graphic scene where real kangaroos were shot and killed by locals. Director Ted Kotcheff defended the scene to point out the serious threat of kangaroos being hunted recklessly with consultation from the Animal Welfare organisations in both Australia and the United Kingdom to show the scene uncut. Since the film first release, “Wake in Fright” developed a cult following and gained recognition as a truly great Australian film that was lost due to the master negative having gone missing. The film’s editor, Anthony Buckley, discovered the original film and sound elements in 2004 and rescued it from destruction. In 2009, the film was restored and re-released at the Cannes Film Festival to widespread acclaim.