The Devil's Playground
( dir. Fred Schepisi
)
Australia
:
The Film House
,
1976
Z1668977
1976
single work
film/TV
Set in a Catholic seminary outside Melbourne in 1953, an era in which aspiring priests would begin training in their early teens for their eventual vocation, The Devil's Playground is a study not only of life in a religious school but also of its effects on the students' lives, morals, and mental states. The protagonist, thirteen-year-old Tom Allen, is constantly getting in trouble for his behaviour, which includes wetting his bed, showering in the nude, and always being late. Although he spends many hours in the chapel praying for guidance, his impure thoughts terrify him. The priests and brothers who teach him also struggle with their own desires, while at the same time arguing for greater discipline. Indeed, most of the order - postulates and priests alike - have doubts about their vocation. Through the loneliness, fear, and shame, Tom begins to ponder his future.
[Source: Australian Screen]
'In a departure from Fred Schepisi’s film The Devil’s Playground, the television sequel Devil’s Playground focuses on the cultural impact of priest child abuse. It will be argued that the prolific mainstream media coverage of these crimes before the series was made, and anticipated during its screening, lent a form of permission to green light the production. In focusing on Case 28 of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, this article will draw attention to the problematic nature of dramatising priest abuse in mainstream Australian television. While victims have willingly voiced graphic details of the sexual violence they experienced as children, after decades of silence, it is as if networks and producers are only now awkwardly grappling with these uncomfortable realities. In the process of sanitising such abusive behaviour, they reduce the degree of cruelty that survivors are intent on communicating.'
Source: Sage Publishing.
