Boxing Day (2007)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Kriv Stenders

Writers:

Richard Green (writer)
Kriv Stenders (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The story of a father's desperate struggle to reunite his estranged family over the course of a single afternoon.

Plot Keywords:

Father | Detention | Christmas | Home Detention | Christmas Lunch

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Richard Green	...	Chris
Tammy Anderson	...	Donna
Syd Brisbane	...	Dave
Stuart Clark	...	Owen
Catriona Hadden	...	Cathy
Misty Sparrow	...	Brooke
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ming Jeng Chew	...	Himself

Runtime:

Australia:81 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

Aboriginal | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Company:

Horrorshow

Trivia:

Some story elements were derived from prison stories that lead actor Richard Green had heard during his three sentences in jail.

Watch this space.

Stenders is a heroic filmmaker. He's doing R&D for the rest of us timid, eager to please, pussy type auteurs. Kriv is here not only to ask 'what if' but to do the work and find out. Necessity is the mother of invention and the necessities of his budgetary constraints mean we now know how a film that is (what looks like) one take, with largely improvising actors, can work. While good, this isn't the greatest film ever made, but Stenders is mining promising territory with his experiments and I'm waiting for him to strike gold with the right components applied to the right idea, and a bit of luck. I'd like to see him use his freedom to try bolder subject matter. The family secret in this film felt a little too familiar in today's media-sphere. Still, I can't think of another Australian filmmaker still working in Australia as worth keeping an eye on as Stenders, except maybe the guys who made Black Water.