Wake in Fright

18

HAVE A DRINK, MATE? HAVE A FIGHT, MATE? HAVE A TASTE OF DUST AND SWEAT, MATE? THERE'S NOTHING ELSE OUT HERE.

John Grant, a bored schoolteacher working in the remote outback, stops overnight in the frontier mining town of Bundanyabba on his way back to Sydney for the Christmas holidays. After he loses all his savings in a bad gambling bet, Grant finds himself marooned and swept up in the vortex of a succession of hard-drinking, hard-living and crude men led by Doc who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent as they are.

Ignored upon release, Wake in Fright has now been acclaimed as one of Australia's most legendary, unique and horrifying contributions to cinema history by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Nick Cave, and is presented here in a definitive 4K restoration.

Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair is presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque and Prince Charles Cinema.