When the Cheshire emerges...

I finally saw the film Snowtown this week.

And OMG, creepy coincidence with writing this today...

It pains me to write about it a year off the mark, after missing the world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival last February (see here for the other reason, which has annoyingly reminded me I missed out on something else big not yet rectified).

In short: it has to stand as the most psychologically confronting film ever produced in my fair country, if not in cinema history.

The only time I had available to watch the film was 10pm on Sunday night, and I knew critics had walked out of screenings in Australia, when I missed the general release for being overseas, as well as those at the Cannes Film Festival.

I felt violated within the first 10 minutes and it didn't leave me.

Justin Kurzel's retelling of greater Adelaide's darkest days in history is literally gut-wrenching but sickeningly intriguing at the same time.

While you expect there to be something sordid going on, it's thrust right in your face. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I went to sleep and it still stuck around until mid-Monday.

I don't think there's ever been a film that's left such a profound effect on me like that before.

What's worse is being able to relate to the location - the northern edges of my beautiful city are REALLY LIKE THAT which is incredibly sad, and when one of the victims talks about Glen Osmond Road and Windy Point I know what he's talking about. That part of town's my (original) greater hood, yo.



We all get a kick when we can pick those sort of things out in a film, but in this instance it was NOT fun. While I was relatively young when the Bodies in the Barrels case was exposed, I have images of the actual footage still in my head and the knowledge of how big the case was. For goodness sake, we had the stigma of 'City of Crime' hanging over our heads for such a long time. And Snowtown's outside the city borders!

With the film creeping at such a slow pace the dread continued for almost too long. HOWEVER, as the reviews said ahead of the Adelaide premiere, it's a film you can't recommend but should still be seen. Daniel Henshall and Louise Harris clearly deserved their AACTA awards, and the film is one of the best examples of not needing a 'name actor' ever put to film.

On a final note, the fact the building still stands and is lived in (for them to have filmed in) is a bit scary. Sick and twisted brilliance the film was, although way too close to home.