Drama

Healing

Pointblank Pictures

Screen Australia

Film Victoria

Australia

English

Hugo Weaving

Don Hany

Xavier Samuel

Mark Leonard Winter

Jane Menelaus

Justine Clarke

Laura Brent

Robert Taylor

Anthony Hayes

Dimitri Baveas

Richard Taylor Stables

Tony Martin

Harry Tseng

Alison Nisselle

Craig Monahan

Tait Brady

Beth Halsted

Emma Bortignon

Craig Carter

Pip Wright

Damien M. Grant

Erin Lander

John Wilkinson

Jeanie Cameron

Brett Anderson

Ernie Clark

Hayes Brien

Carly Turner

Peter Hoyland

Alex Stitt

Andrew Lesnie

Gemma Reynolds

Richard S. Guardian

Paul Kiely

Julian Dimsey

Leslie Binns

Helen Magelaki

Zlatko Kasumovic

Faith Martin

Kate Seeley

Raffaela Calluzi

Suresh Ayyar

Andrew Neil

David Hirschfelder

Ineke Majoor

Robin Gray

Amanda Wray

Pippa Sheen

Birdman of Won Wron Correctional Centre.

Right from the very first scene I knew this was going to be a special type of prison film. Mother nature in all her glory, a bird of prey elegantly gliding through the air in pursuit of its target, then bam! Trapped in a fence, cut to a prison van, a prisoner menacingly staring down a frightened young man, himself trapped, but a wise old bird of years and years of incarceration experience sidles up alongside the youngster, about to take him under his protective wing. The healing of the title begins, for man, boy and creatures, a metaphor heavy narrative that thankfully is beautifully written and portrayed.

Directed by Craig Monahan, who also co-writes the screenplay with Alison Nisselle, this Australian film stars Hugo Weaving, Don Hany, Xavier Samuel and Mark Leonard Winter. Music is by David Hirschfelder and cinematography by Andrew Lesnie. Story follows a small group of prisoners working in a penal system approved rehabilitation of injured birds of prey programme. But outside of this harmonious circle lay differing problems, bully boy cons trying to muscle in with their poison, and then there is serrated family ties outside the prison gates that seem impossible to be healed...

Throughout the pic there are broken beings, inmates, creatures and wardens, all in need of redemption or a restart in life. There's a lot going in the story as such, but it all makes for a gratifying whole because the makers have taken their time to build the characters. Tech credits are excellent, with the performances of the lead actors leading from the front. Weaving giving high end professionalism as the emotionally troubled main guard is something of a given, while Samuel (The Loved Ones) looks like he is about to build himself a worthwhile career.

The film, however, in human form belongs to Hany, who gets the plum role of Iranian Viktor Khadem, the old lag who is the centre of the story. His accent sometimes sounds more South African than Iranian, but his ability to say so much with pained visual ticks and a becalmed delivery of crucial dialogue really cements the heart of the story's worth.

Elsewhere, Lesnie's wide angled photography does justice to the surroundings when the story goes outside of the prison walls into the outback, and of course the grace of the birds is given appropriate splendour. Which leads to bird trainer Andrew Payne, who along with editor Suresh Ayya, deserves a mighty pat on the back for ensuring that Healing is beating a true heart from all standpoints. 

This is a lovely film waiting to be discovered by grown ups who are able to get involved with the thematic beats of the story and accept its deliberate pacing in the process. 8/10

HEALING - teaser trailer

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Healing

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Cast

Hugo Weaving

Don Hany

Xavier Samuel

Mark Leonard Winter

Jane Menelaus

Justine Clarke

Laura Brent

Robert Taylor

Anthony Hayes

Dimitri Baveas

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