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Snowtown 18 rating

Justin Kurzel's shocking dramatisation of Australia's most notorious serial killings.

Crime 2011 120 mins

Director: Justin Kurzel

CC

Overview

Jamie is 16 years old, living with his mother and two brothers in Adelaide's northern suburbs, a disenfranchised community festering with violence and bigotry. Yearning for escape and a sense of direction, he gradually falls under the spell of his mother's new boyfriend, the charismatic John Bunting. But when Bunting begins to display increasingly erratic behaviour, Jamie's suspicions are heightened - and when people start to disappear, his new father figure takes on an altogether different role. How far is Jamie prepared to immerse himself in Bunting's dark world?

The dramatisation of Australia's most notorious spate of serial killings, the 'bodies in the barrels' murders of 1999, Snowtown is the remarkable directorial debut of Justin Kurzel (Nitram), a sincere examination of violence and double-winner at Cannes. Kurzel takes a journalistic fascination in addressing real horror and recent history, and the resulting film is authoritative, disturbing and shockingly convincing.

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