WAKE IN FRIGHT Special Presentations

Hailed as one of Australia’s greatest films, Ted Kotcheff’s movie (which was released internationally under the title OUTBACK) has the rare distinction of having been programmed twice at the Cannes Film Festival-in official competition in 1971 and, digitally restored, as a Cannes Classic at the 2009 festival. Kotcheff masterfully directs the story of John Grant (Gory Bond), a young teacher whose overnight stay in a rough outback mining town extends to a five-day nightmarish odyssey of drinking, gambling, hunting and more drinking, plunging him toward his own destruction. Filled with dork humor and featuring moments of documentary realism, including a harrowingly brutal hunting sequence, WAKE IN FRIGHT is on exceptional work. Its recent critically and commercially successful re-release in Australia is evidence that the film remains as fresh and relevant today as it was nearly 40 years ago.