BEAUTIFUL KATE

Year: 2009
UK: Matchbox Films
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Bryan Brown, Maeve Dermody, Sophie Lowe, Rachel Griffiths, Josh Macfarlane, Suzie Boyaci, Daniel Binks, Briony Kent, Jarrah Cocks, Scott O'Donnell
Director: Rachel Ward
Country: Australia
UK: 101 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains very strong language, strong sex, and incest theme
UK Release Date: 30 July 2010 (Limited Release)


Synopsis

Award winning actress Rachel Ward's makes her directorial debut with BEAUTIFUL KATE. Recognised with numerous nominations at the 2009 AFI Awards, including Best Film & Best Director, the film is courageous and incredibly beautiful in its narrative and visual style, encompassing everything that is great about Australian cinema today.

A stellar cast of some of Australia's strongest acting talent and starring acclaimed, leading actor Ben Mendelsohn (KNOWING, THE NEW WORLD) as Ned, a writer returning home cross-country, to see his dying father Bruce played by Golden Globe nominated Bryan Brown (AUSTRALIA, DEAN SPANLEY) and carer sister Sally played by Oscar nominated Rachel Griffiths (BROTHERS & SISTERS, MURIEL'S WEDDING). Having deserted the family home twenty years previously, Ned's return opens old wounds and awakens long buried secrets from the past.

Set in Australia's mesmerising and captivatingly beautiful outback, BEAUTIFUL KATE in essence an intense and tragic love story about the sexual awakening of three siblings growing up in isolation. Told in the parallel narratives of past and present, returning to the family home with his much younger fiancee Toni, played by rising star Maeve Dermody (BLACK WATER), Ned is forced to confront the realities surrounding the dramatic death of his twin sister Kate, played by newcomer Sophie Lowe, when she was 16. As memories from his youth come flooding back, it becomes apparent that their sibling intimacy had crossed over into a physical relationship, haunting him with the inescapable feelings of desire and guilt.

On the remaining days leading to Bruce's death, a newfound tenderness grows between father and son, as feelings of anger and bitterness soon turn to forgiveness and the past that has haunted the family is finally laid to rest.

At times devastating and at times dealing with subject matters hard to swallow, Rachel Ward's accomplished debut feature, cannot fail to get under your skin.