In this moody black and white drama, very much in the mode of the American "western," but with its own film noir characteristics, a whole town is heaved out of its doldrums when a pair of mysterious strangers come visiting. In the beginning of the film, Angel is traveling with his friend Max on a ship to Honeyfield, a town on the coast of Australia. He is coming home to die. Instead, he dies on board the ship, willing his boots to Angel, and an unopened package to someone called "The Dead Man," in Honeyfield. Also on the ship is a man named Tatts, a far less pleasant personality. When Angel gets off to head into Honeyfield, Tatts decides to follow along unseen. The package, Angel was told, contains something its intended recipient has been looking for without knowing it. On finding the recipient, a mean-spirited old man who is more or less the boss and owner of the town, he learns that the package contains opium.
Cinematography
Stark black-and-white that makes the desert feel like a fever dream
Direction
McInnes's patient, unhurried gaze lets dread accumulate like dust
Acting
Aden Young's Angel—gentle, doomed, impossible to forget
Director
Laurie McInnes
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of only two features directed by Laurie McInnes; Palme d'Or nominee at Cannes 1993, yet nearly impossible to find now. Australian cinema's great lost ghost.
Bill Hunter (Wilson) was Australian cinema royalty—Crocodile Dundee, Muriel's Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla. Here he's terrifyingly small, a king of nothing.
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