Cinema
Sunday Too Far Away
Ken Hannam · 1975
Synopsis
In 1955, on an outback sheep station, Foley, a renowned shearer and heavy drinker, joins a new shearing team; he shares his room with old Garth, a former champion who has become a drunkard. The team struggles to find a suitable cook. Foley loses his rank as best shearer to Arthur Black and leaves a good part of his money at gambling. On the eve of the great shearers' strike, the group's cohesion rests on rum, the union and rivalry.
Context
The first feature film of the South Australian Film Corporation, founded in 1972, the film was written by John Dingwall from a project entitled Shearers, whose original treatment dealt with the shearers' strike of 1956. Shot from May 1974 near Port Augusta and Quorn, delayed by rain, it ran over two hours in its first cut: Foley's affair with the grazier's daughter was removed and a car accident was moved from the end to the beginning, at the cost of a conflict between the director and his producers, Gil Brealey and Matt Carroll. It earned 1,356,000 dollars in Australia, for a budget of 231,000 or 300,000 dollars depending on the source.
Who it is for
A film in English from Australia, steeped in the vocabulary of shearing, with Jack Thompson in the role of Foley.
Prizes and reception
First Australian film selected for the Directors' Fortnight, at Cannes in 1975; best film and two acting awards at the AFI.
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