The story is built around the actions of William Hawkin (Sam Hazeldine) a family man and miner rejected for active duty due to the early onset of miner’s lung. His shame at not being able to serve drives him and his men to extraordinary lengths in the undertaking. There is also a critical look at the military’s penchant for staid and possessive thought in disregarding these non enlisted men’s heroics.

Lacking the budget for big set pieces and special effects helps the film to resolve its story in more human terms and its Britishness becomes a virtue. It lets you in on a world of claustrophobic nastiness where you can almost taste the squalor. The arduous task of digging by hand under incredible stress is given full view, as is the complete lack of help or encouragement from the other troops.

The results of these men’s efforts led to the biggest manmade explosion until the atomic bombs eclipsed it decades later. It also caused over 10,000 German casualties (although those facts are now under scrutiny). The War Below pulls no punches in its depiction of the futility of the trench warfare style of combat of that awful war.
Rob Hudson

The War Below screenings in Brisbane
Palace Barracks
Monday 15, November 11:00 AM
Thursday 25, November 8:10 PM

Palace James St
Tuesday 23, November 8:00 PM
Friday 26, November 3:45 PM
Tuesday 30, November 8:15 PM

The British Film Festival takes place in Brisbane from Wednesday 3 November until Wednesday 1 December and films will be shown exclusively at the Palace Barracks and James St Cinemas. Click here for more information about the festival, or head to the official website for more information and to book your tickets!
www.britishfilmfestival.com.au

Sam Mendes, the Oscar®-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to his World War I epic, 1917.

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them.

1917 will be released in Australian cinemas January 9.
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU

To enter this great competition simply fill out the form below. Please note – these tickets are for a specific event only and can not be exchanged or refunded. The winners will need to be available on January 5, 2020 at 3:30pm in Brisbane to be able to attend this event at Event Cinemas Indooroopilly.

1917 Competition

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Competition will be drawn 3 January 2020, winners will be notified by email.

Far from home in a landscape strewn with threats two young soldiers face their darkest fears and embark on a journey behind enemy lines to deliver a message that could not only save their brother, but an entire battalion on the unforgiving fields of war

1917 will be released in Australian cinemas January 16, 2020.
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU

Official Australian war artists, including Will Dyson, George W Lambert, Arthur Streeton, Fred Leist and Septimus Power, were assigned the task of creating a visual record of Australia’s armed forces in action. Other artists, including Napier Waller and Roy de Maistre, volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force.

Mad through the darkness also presents, for the first time in a century, a selection of works by Evelyn Chapman, the first female Australian artist to visit Europe’s First World War battlefields.

Alongside works created around the time of ‘the war to end all wars’ will be Sidney Nolan’s monumental 1957-58 painting The galaxy, depicting soldiers swimming at Anzac Cove as exploding shells light up the vast expanse of inky darkness.

Mad through the darkness Exhibition
Art Gallery of NSW
25 April – 11 October 2015
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au