INCIDENT AT RAVEN'S GATE

Australia, 1988, 94 minutes, Colour.
Steven Vidler, Celine Griffin, Vincent Gil, Max Cullen.
Directed by Rolf de Heer.

Incident at Raven's Gate is a small-budget science fiction. Critics consider it one of the best of the science fiction films to emerge from Australia. It is set in the Outback, where mysterious things are happening to nature, to people, to machines. There are suggestions of Aliens as well as a government conspiracy to cover up the destruction of the incident.

While the plot is complex, not easy to follow, the important thing is atmosphere, the photography, the special effects and the suggestions about science fiction, politics, human behaviour.

Rolf de Heer was to go on to direct Dingo, Bad Boy Bubby, The Quiet Room, Dance Me to My Song and, somewhat in the vein of Incident, Epsilon.

1. Successful Australian science fiction? Small budget? Critical acclaim?

2. Panavision photography, special effects and sound effects? Musical score?

3. The title, the place, isolation, sense of mystery?

4. Raven's Gate, the town, its appearance, the Outback? The old couple, the mysterious events, destruction?

5. Eddie as hero: in himself, arrival, manner, the discoveries? With Richard and Rachel? At their home, interactions? The barmaid and the sexual encounter? Life in the town, Eddie as the outsider, the football team?

6. Rachel and Richard, their relationship, personalities, on the farm, their ordinary way of life, Eddie's coming, changing? Their coping with the incidents and the mystery?

7. The filming of the fields, the fire, the birds, the light in the sky, mysterious nature?

8. The impact on technology and machines, the electricity, the engines, the water?

9. The effect of the incident on people: the policeman, his place in the town, sexuality, the relationship with the barmaid, death? The dog berserk? Richard, Rachel and Eddie?

10. The scientist, his arrival, his intervention, work, the restoration, cover-up?

11. Eddie and Rachel, the change, everything back to normal, left with their doubts, uneasy memories?

12. Hemmings and his smooth way of covering up, the reconstruction? The atmosphere of conspiracy?

13. The Incident at Raven's Gate as a metaphor for contemporary society?