Cirrus@Austlit

“You can’t keep anything secret here,” said the old woman. “Everybody knows everything about everyone but no one ever tittle tattles because then someone else’ll tell on them. But you don’t matter – it’s open slather on outcasts.”

'The Dressmaker is a bittersweet tragi-comedy about a glamorous young woman who returns, after many years in Europe, to her small home town in rural Australia in order to right some wrongs from the past. When Tilly comes home, she not only heals her ailing mother, but with her sewing machine, and haute couture style, transforms the women of the town in such a way that she gets sweet revenge on those who did her wrong. She also falls unexpectedly in love, which leads to her greatest loss, and her most destructive deed.' (Producer's abstract)

Blind since birth, Martin has never trusted anyone. He takes photographs as proof that the world he imagines is the same as that seen by sighted people. He relies on his young housekeeper, who is in love with him. But when he makes a new friend, the housekeeper's jealousy turns to vindictive rage.