Cinema
Winter of Our Dreams
John Duigan · 1981
Synopsis
The body of a young heroin addict, Lisa, is found in Sydney harbour. Rob, a journalist and bookseller, who lives with his wife, Gretel, and was Lisa's lover at university, tries to understand her death. He meets Lou, a friend of Lisa, a Kings Cross prostitute and drug addict. She moves in with him, in Balmain, to go through withdrawal there, reads Lisa's diary and ends up recognising herself in her friend's despair.
Context
The director, who wrote the screenplay, had had to rewrite entirely a first version refused by the funding bodies in the late seventies; the interest of Bryan Brown and Judy Davis made it possible to put together a modest budget, of about 320,000 dollars. Released on 31 July 1981, the film was one of the surprises of the year: it stayed in cinemas for five months in Sydney and took 959,000 dollars in Australia, showing that audiences would accept harsh contemporary stories. Baz Luhrmann plays the part of Pete, Lou's supplier.
Who it is for
An English-language film from Australia, harsh and contemporary, about drugs and prostitution in Kings Cross.
Prizes and reception
Judy Davis received the AFI award for best actress for this role, then the one from the Moscow festival.