THE WELL

Year: 1997
USA: Cowboy Booking Intl
Cast: Pamela Rabe, Miranda Otto, Paul Chubb, Frank Wilson, Steve Jacobs, Genevieve Lemon, Simon Lydon
Director: Samantha Lang
Country: Australia
USA: 102 mins
USA Release Date: 19 May 2000 (Limited Release - New York)


Synopsis

THE WELL, set in the Australian Outback, is a tightly wound, sexually-charged thriller centred on two women: Katherine (Miranda Otto), the unwilling surrogate sister of Hester (Pamela Rabe), an awkward, emotionally stunted farm-wife. This pair, united by the death of Hester?s father and the resulting inheritance, want to take the fortune and strike out for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York and Europe but find themselves obsessing about the money.

They can?t bear to spend it and they can?t really even bear to leave their isolated farmhouse, but the continuing presence of the cash stresses and stretches and wears on their tenuous, undefined emotional bond. The psycho-sexual power dynamic, drawn against the background of violent, encroaching Outback storms, is relentlessly rattling this tiny, claustrophobic farmhouse. With the arrival of a mysterious hitchhiker, any previous alliances, romantic or otherwise, go out the window. And what exactly is making those noises emanating from the bottom of that old well?