EXILE
1994 / 93 min / 35mm / Drama
Director: Paul Cox
Script: Paul Cox, based on the novel “Priest Island” – E.L. Grant Watson
Camera: Nino Martinetti
Sound: James Currie, Craig Carter
Production Designer: Neil Angwin
Editor: Paul Cox
Music: Paul Grabowsky
Executive Producer: William T. Marshall
Producers: Paul Ammitzboll, Paul Cox, Santhana K Naidu
Cast: Aden Young, Beth Champion, Claudia Karvan, Norman Kaye,
Chris Haywood, Daivid Field, Barry Otto, Hugo Weaving
EXILE Awards
1994: AFI Award - Won - Best Achievement in Cinematography - Nino Gaetano Martinetti ; AFI Award - Nominated - Best Original Music Score- Paul Grabowsky; Berlin International Film Festival -Nominated- Golden Berlin Bear - Paul Cox
"In the name of the law and your fellow men, I declare you, Peter Costello, to be outlaw, and decree that if ever you should return to the mainland, any man meeting you shall ha ve power, and hold it his duty, to work your death, seeing that your life is forf eit. Here on this island you shall stay..."
In 1860 this sentence was passed on to a young man whose only crime was the theft of a few sheep. As time passes he lives and survives on this island, fighting the demons of his past and the ghosts of his present.
A girl from the mainland, Mary, learns of Peter's isolated existence. Compelled by her own loneliness and her romantic dreams about ‘the outlaw’, she decides to go to him, to join him on the island. Within their isolation a unique love blossoms. The intensity of their passion mirrors the sea, the land and the sky. Their spirits soar.
News of Mary's harmonious life with Peter causes great unrest and distress amongst the God-fearing citizens of the mainland. Subsequent news of the imminent birth of a child incites the settlement to demand that the relationship be sanctioned by marriage and baptism, but Peter has other plans.