VAN DIEMEN’S LAND

Australia, 2009, 108 minutes, Colour.
Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel, Paul Ashcroft, Mark Leonard Winter, Torquil Nielsen.
Directed by Jonathan auf der Heide.

Van Diemen’s Land is a reconstruction of an escape by a group of conflicts convicts and their travel through the Tasmanian forests and mountains, enduring all kinds of hardships in the seasons, having no food available, either plant or animal. History recounts how the men killed each other, using the bodies of the dead for food. The main name associated with this is Alexander Pearce. He was the sole survivor of this escape, was captured, escaped again but was finally taken by the British military and executed in 1824.

This is a very harsh story, its presentation of human nature, the hardships of the convict settlement in Van Diemen’s Land, the plight of convicts, the behaviour of the British soldiers, as well as the struggles for survival in such unfriendly territories.

The film has a lot of voice-over comments, some in English and others in Gaelic.

There was a focus on Pearce himself in the television film at the same time as this one, the last The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce.

Not easy viewing but informative about conditions at the time. a harsh piece of Australian history.

1. A 19th-century story? Australia? Tasmania? Convicts, prison, escape, endurance and survival?

2. The Tasmanian locations, rugged beauty, the seasons, mountains and rivers, forests? The landscape as a character?

3. The title, the feel? The prison, the soldiers, the workplaces, the escape?

4. Dialogue, in English and Gaelic?

5. Alexander Pearce and his history, reputation? Character, his story, the escapes, endurance, the need for food, killing his companions, cannibal activity, his being caught, further escape, his execution?

6. The group, the different characters, at work, with the soldiers, engineering the escape, the boat? Wandering in the forests, on the mountains? The violence? Leadership? The decisions?

7. The difficulties, no food, no animals, trying to survive, walking, their clothes, in the rain and snow? Losing their strength, deaths?

8. The need for food, survival, Pearce and the others, killings?

9. The survivors, their wariness of the others, their fear, brutality, food?

10. The last two, each wary of the other? Pearce and his ultimate survival?

11. The information about Pearce in the aftermath?

12. The film immersing audiences in an Australian story and environment?