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| Credited cast: | |||
| Richard Green | ... |
Chris
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Tammy Anderson | ... |
Donna
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Syd Brisbane | ... |
Dave
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Stuart Clark | ... |
Owen
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Catriona Hadden | ... |
Cathy
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Misty Sparrow | ... |
Brooke
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Ming Jeng Chew | ... |
Himself
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Told in real time and shot as a single take, BOXING DAY documents the minute by minute events across the course of an afternoon in the life of Chris Sykes - a recovering alcoholic and estranged father. Living alone on home detention, Chris is preparing Christmas lunch for his family when an old friend turns up at his doorstep and reveals a disturbing truth. When his daughter, his wife and her new boyfriend finally arrive, the situation slowly and inevitability escalates and we are drawn into the compelling story of a desperate father who finally exposes the dark and disturbing secret that has torn his family apart. Written by Moliere, Kristian
Stenders is a heroic filmmaker. He's doing R&D for the rest of us timid, eager to please, pussy type auteurs. Kriv is here not only to ask 'what if' but to do the work and find out. Necessity is the mother of invention and the necessities of his budgetary constraints mean we now know how a film that is (what looks like) one take, with largely improvising actors, can work. While good, this isn't the greatest film ever made, but Stenders is mining promising territory with his experiments and I'm waiting for him to strike gold with the right components applied to the right idea, and a bit of luck. I'd like to see him use his freedom to try bolder subject matter. The family secret in this film felt a little too familiar in today's media-sphere. Still, I can't think of another Australian filmmaker still working in Australia as worth keeping an eye on as Stenders, except maybe the guys who made Black Water.