Celia Boxshot
Celia
Australia, 1988
Length / Feature: 99 minutes
Special features: 14 minutes
Sound: Original stereo (restored)
Colour
OAR: 1.78:1 16:9 Enhanced
Language: English
PAL DVD9  Region 0
RRP: £12.99
buyRelease Date: 30th March 2009
Second Run DVD 038
Set in mid 1950s Australia, with the fear of communism in the air and the country's farmlands overrun by a plague of rabbits, the film depicts a long hot summer seen through the eyes and over-active imagination of nine year old Celia.

Shaken by the death of her beloved Grandmother, Celia finds herself adrift between the cruel games and rituals of childhood and the incomprehensible world of grown-ups. With monstrous creatures stalking her dreams by night, those imagined terrors blur by day with the banal brutality of the adult world and lead to tragic and shocking consequences.

Ann Turner's refreshingly unsentimental debut feature is a dark fable of childhood's end. An enthralling film to rank alongside Lord of the Flies, The 400 Blows and Stand By Me.


more about the film

Celia Stills
Special Features
- Newly filmed interview with director Ann Turner
- New anamorphic transfer from original materials, supervised by the director.
- Booklet featuring:
New essays by writer and film historian Michael Brooke / author and historian Professor Joy Damousi.
‘The Hobyahs’ – a traditional folktale featured in the film.
- Optimal quality dual layer discs
- Photo gallery
- Available for the first time on DVD.


Crew
Cast
Rebecca Smart - Celia Carmichael
Nicholas Eadie - Ray Carmichael
Mary-Anne Fahey - Pat Carmichael
Victoria Longley - Alice Tanner
Alexander Hutchinson - Steve Tanner
William Zappa - Sergeant John Burke
Amelia Frid - Stephanie Burke
Margaret Ricketts - Gran

Crew
Directed by Ann Turner
Written by Ann Turner

Producers - Timothy White and Gordon Glenn
Director of Photography - Geoffrey Simpson
Production Designer - Peta Lawson
Editor - Ken Sallows
Music - Chris Neal
Executive Producer - Bryce Menzies

Appreciation
Winner: 1989 Grand Prix, Créteil International Women's Film Festival

“... marks a feature debut of astonishing skill... forceful, outlandish and highly provocative” Empire ****

“Transfixing, assured, extremely lucid… recalls the deceptive serenity of BLUE VELVET” Janet Maslin, New York Times

"I rate CELIA as one of those classics of childhood such as Reed’s THE FALLEN IDOL or Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS”
Tom Hutchinson, The Mail


Trailer

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