Wake in Fright

A ‘cultured’ teacher who yearns to return to the sophisticated city finds himself stranded in an eternally boozy limbo, where being someone’s ‘mate’ means drinking beer until all sense has gone. A classic film, Wake in Fright was the precursor to the 1970s explosion of Australian cinema, and unpacked so much of the country’s shadowy side. Could it have been made by an Australian? Canadian director Ted Kotcheff seems to see something that locals couldn’t, and the fictional town of Bundanyabba represents much that urban Australia prefers not to face.