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Picnic at hanging rock

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Movie propaganda

Set in turn-of-the-century Australia, Picnic at hanging rock dramatises the unexplainable, almost supernatural disappearance of three girls and a teacher while on a school picnic.

The boarding school seems a Victorian oasis of all things proper, but beneath the facade, pupils and schoolmistresses yearn with unfulfilled desires. Stepping into the sun-drenched outback and falling under its primitive spell, one group climbs a tower of treacherous rocks as if called away from their repressive life.

Ravishing cinematography juxtaposing linens and lace with the ancient, bug-infested bush hypnotises viewers into the same sinister trance. Re-cut after more than 20 years, this version presents Peter Weir's masterpiece as he intended it.

Starring Rachel Roberts as Mrs Arthur Appleyard, Vivean Gray as Miss McCraw, Helen Morse as Madamoiselle de Poitiers, Kirsty Child as Miss Lumley, Tony Llewellyn-Jones as Tom, Jacki Weaver as Minnie, Frank Gunnell as Mr whitehead, Anne-Louise Lambert as Miranda, Karen Robson as Irma, Jane Vallis as Marion, Christine Schuler as Edith, Margaret Nelson as Sara, Ingrid Mason as Rosamund, Jenny Lovell as Blanche and Janet Murray as Juliana. Written by Cliff Green from the novel by Joan Lindsay, directed by Peter Weir.