One of Australia’s most prolific authors, Tim Winton, has lent his best-selling work ‘The Turning’ to a wide range of fellow Australian creatives, including the Artistic Director and CEO of Circa, Yaron Lifschitz, young acting dynamo Mia Wasikowska and sand animator Marieka Walsh, to name a few. Each artistic mind has brought to life their own unique chapter of Winton’s collection of interweaving short stories. In total, eighteen vignettes have been created comprising of chapters featuring no dialogue, all dancing and with several actors and actresses of different ages and backgrounds playing the same character.
If there’s one word to describe this collective work, it’s exquisite. An undertaking of this scope and size shouldn’t technically work, but it does. Australia’s rich and diverse landscape and cultures somehow manages to produce a unique and cohesive grand picture that reaches every human aspect.
THE TURNING - TEASER TRAILER
The ambition of this film has turned it into a stunning event that Australian cinema yearns for. Often following the tales of Vic Lang, the film explores the effect that a person's past can have on his present and future, as well as those around them.
In a work of quality over quantity, the film boasts come of Australia’s most loved and revered actors, including Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh, Susie Porter and Rose Byrne - each one turning in hauntingly beautiful portrayals of subtlety and pain.
More than simply a film, ‘The Turning’ is art and should be viewed as such. At 181 minutes, this is a marathon, not a sprint - imagine a slow walk through an exhibition, letting each piece wash over you, as each new work only enhances that last.