The Plains of Heaven (1982) dir. Ian Pringle

AFW + NFSA #67: The Plains of Heaven (1982)
7:30pm Tuesday 24 September 2024
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Road, Brunswick.

Join us at The Brunswick Green for a very rare presentation of director Ian Pringle’s low-budget debut feature drama, The Plains of Heaven (1982). Produced primarily with a grant from the Creative Development Branch of the Australian Film Commission, the film was shot on 16mm at Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps, with a minimal production crew who ran out of money three weeks into their four-week shoot. Pringle went on to win the Jury Prize at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival, and the film was released in the USA under the title Panic Station, though it has not been widely available for viewing in Australia for decades.

The Plains of Heaven (1982) dir. Ian Pringle. 80 mins.
16mm projection. $10 on the door. 

In Australia’s most haunting landscape — two technicians on an isolated satellite station relay the news from nowhere. Until the night comes when they learn that the transmissions have an end as well as a beginning, and violence and madness come to the plains of heaven.

Cinematography and editing by Ray Argall. Starring Richard Moir, Reg Evans, Gerard Kennedy, John Flaus, Jenny Cartledge and Brian McKenzie.