Incident at Raven's Gate


Incident at Raven's Gate is a 1988 science fiction arthouse feature film directed by prominent Australian director Rolf de Heer.
The cast of Incident at Raven's Gate included long-term Australian stage and screen actor Max Cullen, as a policeman, and Terry Camilleri as an astrophysicist attached to Special Branch, investigating unexplained radar signals in a remote South Australian country town.

Plot

On a farming property called Raven's Gate, enthusiastic hydroponicist Richard Cleary is trying innovative farming practices. He is also trying to accommodate his brother Eddie, newly out of gaol and more interested in Richard's wife Rachel than in working on the property. Strange events on the property and a minor crime in the town attract policeman Taylor and Special Branch investigator Cummings. Eddie has the misfortune to also cross local cop Skinner, by dating the target of his affections, barmaid Annie. Tensions in personal relationships and mysterious events build to a climax that sees Raven's Gate assaulted by an alien force, and a number of deaths amongst the protagonists. The film closes with the stunned survivors Eddie and Rachel standing outside Raven's Gate homestead, newly restored by Special Branch, and the soundtrack playing the Easybeats song Friday on My Mind.

Filming

A genre-crossing film by Rolf de Heer, Incident at Raven's Gate was made in South Australia, with South Australian Film Corporation support, for a budget of. It was co-produced by de Heer and Marc Rosenberg, who together also wrote the script from a screenplay by James Michael Vernon. It was filmed in South Australia's Riverland and Murraylands, and Carrington, New South Wales. The film is part thriller, part science fiction, and part psychological drama.
The movie was shot on location in South Australia.

Critical reception

The movie achieved only limited release and did not receive the critical acclaim of many other de Heer films. It nevertheless managed three nominations at the 1988 Australian Film Institute Awards. Director Rolf de Heer would later go on to win several AFI awards, including Best Film, for his 2006 release Ten Canoes.

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