Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

In the winter dark

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

In a secluded valley something or someone is killing the animals.

The four frightened residents each scarred by life and love form an uneasy alliance in search of things they do not know in places they should not be.

Starring Brenda Blethyn, Ray Barrett, Miranda Otto and Richard Roxburgh, based on the novel by Tim Winton. recipient of three AFI nominations - best actor, best cinematography and best supporting actress.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

One of those wonderfully dark films that Aussies make so well.

All the characters are broken goods. Their lives are a constant battle against land, weather and self. Their only redeeming feature is their broken humanity. And then things start to go wrong.

In the winter dark seethes with animosity and aggression. The characters cannot talk without taking another bite out of each other. It's a wonderful story, well-acted and mostly well-shot. There are some overt Hollywoodisms (if the middle of the night were any brighter they would've had to stop for lunch) and some bad continuity but these are minor defects in a film that is beautiful to watch.

Ray Barrett reveals a sensitivity that is not often present in his other characters, Brenda Blethyn is wonderfully understated, Richard Roxburgh has a hard edge I have never seen in him before and Miranda Otto is less Miranda Otto than she's ever been. I would've liked to have seen some cast members I didn't already know but that's the industry, I suppose, especially in Australia where the more you work, the more you work.

Grimly entertaining, In the winter dark is a movie well worth seeing.

Security censorship classification

M (Adult themes, medium level violence, medium level coarse language)

Not for public release in Australia before date

28 April 1999