image of person or book cover 6870827854921601268.jpg
form y separately published work icon The Turning selected work   film/TV  
Adaptation of The Turning Tim Winton , 2004 selected work short story
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 The Turning
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Seventeen extraordinary Australian directors respond to the hauntingly beautiful collection of short stories by Tim Winton. Spanning almost 30 years, these stories provide windows into the lives of men and women in the small coastal town of Angelus. Linking and overlapping, the stories create a stunning and disturbing portrait of a small coastal community in Western Australia. As befits the title of the film, the stories are preoccupied with the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people's lives. Relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.'

Source: Screen Australia

Contents

* Contents derived from the
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Australia,
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Arenamedia Pty Ltd , 2013 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Ash Wednesday, Marieka Walsh , single work film/TV

'An animated interpretation of T.S. Eliot's poem, 'Ash Wednesday', that prefaces Tim Winton's story collection, depicting the beach bonfire party at Massacre Point, the spearing of sharks and burning kites, referenced in several chapters of The Turning.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/ash_wednesday/)

Note: Animated.
Big World, Warwick Thornton , single work film/TV

'After flunking their exams and finishing high school, disillusioned best friends Lenny and Biggie flee up the coast in an old Kombi to escape the drudgery of the local meatworks. Their bonds of mateship are tested when a female hitchhiker and free spliff are brought into the equation.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/big_world/)

Abbreviation, Jub Clerc , single work film/TV

'Vic Lang's sexual awakening begins when a girl with a missing ring finger gives him his first kiss.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/abbreviation/) (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Acquifer, Robert Connolly , single work film/TV

'A High School music teacher, David, hears a story on the news that causes him slip out of the house without a word to his wife and drive all night to his hometown, to face a secret from his past.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/aquifer/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Damaged Goods, Kris Mrksa , single work film/TV

'Gail Lang tries to understand her husband's lingering adolescent obsession with Strawberry Alison, a girl with a large red birthmark on her face. Going through a box of Vic's memorabilia, Gail begins to wonder whether she too was just some "damaged goods" that her husband wanted to rescue.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/damaged_goods/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Small Mercies, Rhys Graham , single work film/TV

'After the death of his wife, Peter Dyson moves back to his hometown of Angelus with his son, Ricky. Trying to settle in to his new life proves difficult when his ex-girlfriend, a recovering addict, reaches out to him, stirring up memories of their toxic relationship.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/small_mercies/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

On Her Knees, Ashlee Page , single work film/TV

'Vic helps his mother Carol at work, cleaning homes and is shocked to discover she has been fired and accused of stealing, something Vic knows to be untrue. Vic struggles to understand his mother's refusal to fight back and, even more so, her insistence on finishing the work and refusing payment.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/on_her_knees/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Cockleshell, Marcel Dorney , single work film/TV

'Brakey is in love with his neighbour, Agnes. He watches her, following her on her nightly spear fishing trips, trying to understand her withdrawn behaviour and troubled home life. He gets his first real insight into how deep Agnes' pain runs on the night of a terrifying incident.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/cockleshell/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

The Turning, Claire McCarthy , single work film/TV

'Rae lives in a trailer park with her husband Max, and two young daughters. When Sherry and Dan temporarily move into the park, Sherry and Rae develop a friendship. When Rae learns that they are born again Christians, she begins to wonder whether Jesus might be the answer to her problems too.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/the_turning/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Sand, Justin Monjo , single work film/TV

'On a fishing trip at the beach, brothers Frank and Max are playing in the sand dunes. Sibling rivalry turns nasty when Max plays a dangerous trick on his brother.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/sand/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Family, Emily Ballou , single work film/TV

'Footy legend Frank flees the media controversy over his mid-game quitting of the sport. Returning to his hometown of White Point, he finds his brother Max out in the surf. Out on the waves together, the brothers finally address the weight they have been carrying around their whole lives, the weight that ended Frank's footy career.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/family/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Long, Clear View, Mia Wasikowska , single work film/TV

'A portrait of Vic Lang's younger years. His peculiar habits, social anxieties and fixation on his father's rifle.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/long_clear_view/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Reunion, Andrew Upton , single work film/TV

'Carol Lang joins Vic and Gail for Christmas Day. They are invited to their relatives for lunch and end up at the wrong house in the wrong swimming pool. They experience brings Gail and Carol together after many years of strained relations.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/reunion/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Commission, David Wenham , single work film/TV

'Vic Lang journeys to find his estranged father to tell him that Carol, Vic's mother, is dying. When he locates his father in an old isolated shack in the outback, he is struck by the love he still feels for him, and is finally able to ask his father about his youth, when his father was a policeman in Angelus, and about why he suddenly disappeared from their lives.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/commission/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Fog, Jonathan Auf Der Heide , single work film/TV

'Bob Lang has been drinking to deal with the stress of his new-job in the Angelus police force and the expectation on him to turn a blind eye to the corruption within it. When he is called out late to a job to locate a hiker who has gone missing in the mountains, Bob finds himself trapped in the fog with a young female cadet reporter and a desperate need to reveal the intimidation and foul-play rife within the police force.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/fog/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Boner McPharlin's Moll, Justin Kurzel , single work film/TV

'Boner McPharlin's reputation has reached mythical status in town. The subject of rumours and gossip, he is the man everybody has heard the stories of, but no one really knows.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/boner_mcpharlins_moll/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Immunity, Yaron Lifschitz , single work film/TV

'A young girl with a crush on Vic Lang plucks up the courage to sit next to him on the train.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/immunity/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Defender, Ian Meadows , single work film/TV

'Gail and Vic travel to see their friends in the country. In the car, Gail admits to having had an affair and struggles with Vic's lack of reaction. When Fenn offers Vic a shotgun to shoot at clay pigeons, something Vic has not done since he was a young man, he is strangely freed from the ghosts of his past.'

Source: The Turning website (http://www.theturningmovie.com.au/#!/defender/). (Sighted: 6/12/2013)

Works about this Work

David Wenham: Speaking Elliptically Travis Johnson , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 6 February 2018;
Cinema Plus : Robert Connolly and Event Audience Screenings Stephen Gaunson , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 11 no. 2 2017; (p. 77-84)

This article discusses the problems that Australian films face in the big distribution model, and ways that producers have rethought how their films are funded and distributed. To do this it uses the case study of Robert Connolly's Cinema Plus exhibition company. Although there is a historical precedence set for Connolly's self distribution venture, this shift to rethink how Australian films are being distributed and exhibited is certainly representative of a changing reassessment of the porous relationship between production and exhibition, which for some time Screen Australia demarcated in by two separate pools. What Cinema Plus represents is a recognition that conventional big distribution is not always the most effective way to reach the widest possible audience.

Director Rolls 'em from Snowtown to Cannes Penelope Debelle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 May 2015; (p. 33)
Director's Turn for the Best 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 February 2014; (p. 41)
The 10 Best Australian Films of 2013 Lynden Barber , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 December 2013;

— Review of Mystery Road Ivan Sen , 2013 single work film/TV ; 100 Bloody Acres Colin Cairnes , Cameron Cairnes , 2012 single work film/TV ; The Darkside Warwick Thornton , 2013 single work film/TV ; The Rocket Kim Mordaunt , 2012 single work film/TV ; The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrmann , Craig Pearce , 2013 single work film/TV ; Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV ; The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
'From a tale set entirely in Laos to a doco about TV news in Afghanistan, many of the year's top films aren't recognisably Australian. Lynden Barber rounds up the best of the year.'
Eventful Turn at Cinema Michael Bodey , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 August 2013; (p. 16-17)

— Review of The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
Coastal Cocktail Evan Williams , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 September 2013; (p. 16-17)

— Review of The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
The Turning Ed Gibbs , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 September 2013;

— Review of The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
Many Hands Make Winton's Work Heavy Ed Gibbs , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 22 September 2013; (p. 8)

— Review of The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
The Turning Evan Williams , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 25 September 2013; (p. 14)

— Review of The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
Tim Winton's Turn a Festival Highlight Michael Bodey , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 24 July 2013; (p. 15)
Misogyny Lurks in Winton's World of Fiction Nicolle Flint , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 1 August 2013; (p. 31)
Stars Align for Winton Compendium Michael Bodey , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 August 2013; (p. 9)
Fresh Take Philippa Hawker , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 7 September 2013; (p. 12)
West Side Stories Philippa Hawker , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 September 2013; (p. 6-7) The Age , 14 September 2013; The Canberra Times , 14 September 2013;
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