Wake in Fright (1971) : Wake in Fright (1971)

Wake in Fright (1971) : Wake in Fright (1971)
Released: 4 November 2009
Classification: M
Region: 4 (Australia & New Zealand)

Brutal, uncompromising and stunning, Wake in Fright tells is the story of a young teacher, John Grant, who arrives in a rough outback mining town planning to stay overnight before catching the plane to Sydney. But, on this one hot night in Bundanyabba, Grant decides to go into a smoky, crowded pub . . .

However, one night stretches to five, in which he discovers gambling, ruins himself financially and plunges headlong toward his own destruction. When the alcohol-induced mist lifts, the educated John Grant is no more. Instead there is a self-loathing man in a desolate wasteland, dirty, red-eyed, sitting against a tree and looking at a rifle with one bullet left . . .

There is no Australian film quite like Wake in Fright. Nominated cinema's ultimate prize, the Palme d'Or, at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival and still as raw and fresh today as it was then, rediscover this lost cinematic masterpiece as it screens for the first time in over 30 years.