Article - RealFooty.com.au - Wednesday 30th of July, 2008

As I was saying to my friend William in the pub over a glass of cane-cutters' cordial …
John Harms

I DON'T watch much television these days — except for sport. Not since they took F-Troop off, and The Sullivans went from historical drama to soap. And I went away to uni. So, until recently, I didn't know who William McInnes was.

Then the Handicapper and I saw him in Look Both Ways, a movie we both found thoughtful and sensitive.

Then I discovered his book, A Man's Got To Have A Hobby, about growing up in Redcliffe, on the edge of Brisbane. I loved it. I started giving it to friends as a birthday and Christmas present. I could relate to it very strongly.

William had captured my Queensland: Queensland when it was happy to be what it was; Queensland before it became self-conscious and put itself on a path to blandness.

I loved the references to 1970s rugby league, when Brisbane had a wonderful competition, every bit as tribal as the VFL, with quirky grounds such as Bishop Park, where ancient blokes sold first-scorers' doubles near the gates and classic club songs. In those days, people all over Queensland had their team.

William wrote about Bevan Bleakley and Merv Cook, the very thought of whom would warm your heart; the same heart ripped out when the Broncos were formed and corporate football replaced community football.

Then I actually met William. The first time was over a few beers in Adelaide. He was just as his book suggested.

I liked how you could mention any name and he could go to the manila folder of stories filed is his mind under that name, pick one out and the conversation would be away.

It was rugby league players who really got him going. "What about Tony Obst?" I'd say. "Tony Obst," he'd say. "Nev Hornery," I'd say. He'd throw his head back, "Nev Hornery," and laugh.

Like he was being reminded of an old friend.

A few weeks later, he sent me a photocopy of a 1976 Brisbane Rugby League program. All those names. All those memories. He must keep that sort of stuff.

These days not only is William an award-winning actor, he has built a reputation as a cricket writer. I recently read his novel Cricket Kings and I can safely say he is the Neville Cardus of Australian actor-turned-cricket writers since the turn of the century.

We were both invited to appear at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, which finished on Sunday.

We actually started the whole thing on Thursday at the Bangalow Pub with what was grandly promoted as a sports literary lunch entitled "Cricket: invented by India and stolen by England."

The panel included noted over-achievers Shashi Tharoor, United Nations dignitary, writer and commentator, and the prolific G.C.J.D. Haigh, who discussed the proposition with the earnest solemnity of Walls and Sheahan discussing the interchange rule on On The Couch.At one point, I caught the eye of McInnes, who had that I'd-rather-be-talking-about-Lucky-Grills look. Or Larry Storch.

On Friday night, we went to Strop's pub to watch Hawthorn and Geelong. About a dozen of us from the festival and Micky Crawshay up from Melbourne for someone's wedding. William likes his footy. He has followed the Doggies since moving to Melbourne many years ago. He was keen.
The Cats start solidly, building momentum throughout the first quarter. The game looks theirs. Alastair Clarkson wrings his hands. "Coaches," says McInnes. "They're like bad actors."

He runs an analysis of the action. As a warning to excited middle-aged Geelong fans, he quotes Clint Eastwood: "We've all got it comin'."

When the world turns against Brad Ottens and the Cats ruckman looks broken, McInnes breaks into, "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I." I'm not sure whether he's ever played Hamlet or just owns a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. When Chappy's hamstring isn't as bad as expected, it's: "Strained, not torn."

As things hot up, McInnes removes his jacket to reveal he is wearing an old Brisbane Past Brothers rugby jumper — blue and white hoops, or butcher's stripes as they are called up there.

Now I really am laughing.

It prompts a discussion of Brisbane and Darling Downs TV ads during the coverage of 1970s rugby league.

The Errol Stewart electrical appliance ad gets a run at three-quarter-time, just after everyone has been sent into a Soweto dance by Junior Rioli's mark. Then the O'Shea's Electrical ad from Dalby ("See me, Ba-a-rry O'Shea" done by Barry himself).

The last quarter is tense and McInnes has the you-blokes-could-lose-this look. He's almost right. But the Hawks can't take their chances and the Cats hang on.

The Geelong song sets us off. We sing the Wynnum song (to the tune of Men of Harlech) and the Brothers song ("The team in the blue and the white, it's the Brothers. The team that's superior to all the others"). Which leads to some old-fashioned rugby league tackling in the bar and a tap on the shoulder from one of the security zombies.

"Mate," someone says to the bouncer, "they've got a combined age of over 90."

We survive. The night finishes with a round of Bundy, a discussion of Norman Yemm and his performances in the middle-distance events at the Stawell Gift, and Geelong on top of the ladder.

That'd Be Right - William's New Book

Hachette Livre, the publisher of William's books A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and Cricket Kings have updated their website ready for the launch next week of William's new book, That'd Be Right.

Click here to see the updated profile page for William.

And to read an except from the new book, click here.

Article - The North Shore Times, Wednesday 16th July, 2008

Underbelly man tells of new crime series
Ben Falkenmire
Wednesday 16 July, 2008 12:01am

WRITER Greg Haddrick's mantelpiece is starting to get a little crowded.

The former Home and Away writer has three Australian Writers' Guild awards, as well as two Australian Film Institute awards.

After this year's guild awards on August 15, Haddrick, of Gordon, could be adding two more.
As co-producer of the Underbelly miniseries that screened on Channel 9, Haddrick is hoping the show might win an open category, where the sole nominee is a surprise on the night.

"It's been quite phenomenal, the success of Underbelly," he said.

He is certainly in with a chance for his telemovie, The Informant, which stars William McInnes and will screen later this year on Channel 10.

The screenplay-length movie conceived solely for TV is about a man with extensive knowledge on international crime networks and money laundering who works with a government crime agency unsure about his background.

"You never really know if he is a goodie or a baddie or if he is going to turn on them," said Haddrick, 47. "It's good fun."

Haddrick has just started work on the production of the second series of Underbelly, and was hesitant about giving too much away.

"There's no great secret the second series will go backwards in time, as a sort of prequel," he said.

"We're hoping the second series will be just as big as the first."

In that case, Haddrick might want to look at buying a new mantelpiece.

Interview - ScreenWise.com

Willam McInnes reckons that the best performance in his latest film Unfinished Sky comes from Milo, a blue-heeler. “I was watching the rushes and I realised that Milo was just being,” says McInnes in his distinctive Aussie drawl. “The hardest thing to do as an actor is just to be, just to exist. There’s a saying – it’s a bit clichéd, but it’s right - about being in the moment, and that’s where you have to be as an actor. Seeing Milo just being a dog was fantastic and really helped me take something away from the process – something that could help me grasp what I needed to do.”

Milo plays a cattle dog called Elvis, and McInnes is his owner John Woldring. In the quiet and moody opening few minutes to Unfinished Sky, it’s only these two characters that we see, and it becomes clear that Woldring is a reclusive farmer who has opted out of life. Milo is the only company on the farm, and man and dog round up sheep together, eat dinner at the same time, and sleep in the same bed. The next morning it’s Milo who wakes Woldring with an incessant bark. Woldring’s solitary existence is interrupted dramatically as a traumatised Afghani woman (Monic Hendrickx) staggers into view and collapses. Battered, bleeding and unable to speak English, Woldring has no choice but to take her in and then help her out. The film then peels back the layers of both their lives, mixing mystery and drama with romance and a touch of comedy. It’s a high quality Australian film that premiered in the ACT at last year’s Canberra International Film Festival, and is now in general release across Australia.

McInnes – who has been acting since leaving drama school in 1989 – is best known for his work in television, playing roles like John Freeman in A Country Practice, Max Connor in Sea Change and most famously Sergeant Nick Schultz in Blue Heelers. He’s also starred in a number of feature films – Kokoda, Irresistible and Look Both Ways which was written and directed by his wife, Sarah Watt. Although he’s never been out of work as an actor, McInnes isn’t the kind of man to sit still for too long. He’s has written and published two best selling books and a third is about to be released. His first novel – a memoir called A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby - cemented his reputation as a storyteller with an irreverent - and very Australian - sense of humour.

The sharp Aussie wit that characterises his writing is never far away in the conversation. I asked what attracted him to Unfinished Sky. “The catering,” he quips, quick as a flash. “Let me give you some advice,” he continues without pause for breath, “if you’re miles away from the sea, don’t ever get curried prawns for lunch. They tend to hurry things along.”Unfinished Sky was shot in Queensland, not far from where McInnes lived as a child. “I grew up near the Sunshine coast, about an hour and a half away from the location for the film. It was a semi–rural area in my day, and I’d walk to school and see cows in people’s yards. We had dogs - like Milo - and as kids, we’d go and stay at an Auntie’s place nearby – a real farm. But it was a dying age, and the place is part of Brisbane now.”

A significant element to the film is the grand rural homestead where John Woldring lives alone, and where he can hide his mysterious visitor. It’s a cavernous house, and whilst Woldring eats out of a can and watches bad television, the house is full of books and an important past. McInnes sees the house as a reflection of Woldring’s character. “It alludes to grander times and suggests that John was part of an older family that had enjoyed a certain prestige in the community,” he says. “The house was once great and has now fallen, but there’s a mystery about it. It’s quite Gothic in a way. The bloke I play is a man who is - in a sense - at the end of the line. He functions to keep the farm ticking over, but you have to look at how he keeps this marvellous home he had – it is not so much a home now, it is almost a mausoleum of past glories and his own emotional life.”

Bringing a character like Woldring to life on the screen required McInnes to find a very quiet and subtle approach to his performance. “When you’re an actor, you always want to act – that’s your instinct. Most people are not content to just stand there and watch. You feel like you have to clench your jaw or tilt your head or do something silly, as if to prove to people that you are acting. I wasn’t supposed to do that in this role and I was worried that I would just look like a plank. But I really enjoyed what the director - Peter Duncan - wanted me to do: to be a bit subtle and layer the performance. Usually I am about as subtle as a runaway bull.”

As we talk more about approaches to acting, it becomes clear that McInnes is old school Australian, exuding the values of quietly getting on with things without having to resort to spin or self-promotion. “My approach to any role is to do enough research to not look like a dill,” he explains. “The best thing you can do is rock up on time, fit the costume and be honest.” It’s a line not unlike the one attributed to Spency Tracey about learning your lines and not bumping into the furniture. But McInnes has deeper thoughts he wants to explore. “Actors draw from the same well , which is basically themselves. You can research and you can study and you can try and inhabit another body, but in the end - because you’re who you are,- you bring mostly yourself to the role. The best way to make people believe that you are another character is to try and be truthful and honest in your interpretation.” As if the words he has just said have hit some personal nerve, McInnes laughs. “Actually, it doesn’t mean you just rock up and do it – which is what I usually say because I don’t want to sound like a twerp - it’s a strategic way of doing the job, a mixture of different methodologies. Obviously you have to know the lines, but you also have to know what you don’t want to say. You have to be on top of the character enough to ask questions and debate with the director what you’re doing in the scene.”

Once again the conversation comes back around to Milo. “He knew what he was doing in every scene,” says McInnes. One day we had a scene where I had to kick a football around with him, and I was wondering what he’d do. Guess what? He chased it.” McInnes pauses briefly and laughs again. “Of course he bloody did, he’s a flippin’ dog. What else would he do.”

Review - Unfinished Sky - Sydney Morning Herald - Thursday 19th of June, 2008

WILLIAM McINNES does sadness very well. He uses subtraction, draining his face of any suggestion that life could have anything at all to recommend it.

Needless to say, it is a skill to be employed sparingly. Cross that fine line between true sorrow and raging self-pity and there is no going back - a fact that occurred to me during Unfinished Sky's opening scene. It treats us to the full impact of McInnes's brand of despair, with close-ups of his bloodshot left eye, downturned mouth and stubbly cheek, and it is not the most enticing way of ushering you into a film.

Fortunately, McInnes's John Woldring, a reclusive Queensland farmer, has a good excuse for surrendering to such abject misery, but it takes a while before you learn what it is. He has lightened up by then and Peter Duncan's film - a reinvention of a Dutch hit, The Polish Bride - has negotiated so many deft plot twists and smooth changes in tone that you are ready to go wherever it, and McInnes, want to lead you.

Woldring is jolted out of his self-absorbed state one morning when he spies a young woman staggering across the paddocks towards his homestead. She is bruised, bleeding, terrified and exhausted, and speaks no English. He grudgingly takes her in and during the next few days, having survived the awfulness of his cooking, she gradually makes up her mind to trust him. One reason is the gentle persistence he shows in trying to breach the language barrier between them.
Another is his dog, a blue heeler called Elvis. Memories of Heartbreak Hotel make her laugh and it's a crucial turning point. Not only does her laughter warm the room, it opens up the film's potential as an unlikely love story of charm and tenderness.

But it is delicate stuff. Clearly, it won't be a romance born of cosy, confessional conversations by the fire. These are both prickly characters and every confidence is hard-won. It also has to be conveyed through fractured sentences rife with the risk of misinterpretation. Woldring finally works out that Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx) is an Afghan refugee, and as he worries away at the rest of her story, he reveals bits of his own. For years he has restricted himself to cramped quarters at the back of the handsome old house which has been his home since childhood. Now he and Tahmeena begin gradually to enjoy the homestead together. The film's title refers to the expanse of sky in an unfinished jigsaw puzzle spread out on a table. Seeing it there soon after she arrives, Tahmeena adds a piece to it, only to be bawled out for daring to touch it. But eventually, the puzzle becomes a metaphor for their part-told stories as she and Woldring work on it together.

Hendrickx, who starred in the original film, is a grave, dark-haired beauty with an engaging sense of mischief, which makes a nice foil for the McInnes gruffness. Both know how to light the film's silences with flashes of humour. You like them together, and as Tahmeena's turbulent past begins to impinge on their cocooned state, you find you very much want them to stay together.

This is Duncan's first feature since Passion, his 1999 biopic about the composer Percy Grainger and it is a lot tighter than anything he has done before.

I could have done without the score's nagging. You don't need it drumming out warnings of trouble in store. More potent threats are supplied by Bille Brown and Christopher Sommers as a couple of locals who clearly know quite a bit about the events leading up to Tahmeena's appearance on Woldring's doorstep.

The ensuing action is adroitly handled. So is the ending, which has Woldring stepping back into the wider world as he and Tahmeena face their inevitable showdown with the implacable paradoxes of the immigration system. It may be a small film, but it has a big story to tell.

Interviews with Cast, Director and Producers of Unfinished Sky

To see video interviews with the cast, director and producers of Unfinished Sky, click here.

Article - Melbourne Age, Friday 20th of June, 2008

Monic Hendrickx adds a presence to Unfinished Sky, says Philippa Hawker.

THE Australian film Unfinished Sky has a simple premise. John, a solitary man living in isolation on a Queensland rural property that has seen better days, comes across a stranger, a woman who stumbles onto his land, distressed, bruised, exhausted.

He takes her into the house, helps her recover, and chooses to keep her presence a secret. There are unexplained reasons behind her arrival and his decision to conceal it. And the situation is complicated by their inability to communicate: the woman, Tahmeena, speaks barely a word of English.

Unfinished Sky, says William McInnes, who plays John, is "a film with a brain". It wasn't hard, he says, to take the role. It is also, as it happens, a film with a previous life: it is based on a Dutch movie called The Polish Bride, released in 1998, which made a star of its female lead, Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx.

There are many differences between the two films, in tone and narrative: Unfinished Sky's director, Peter Duncan (Children of the Revolution, Passion) who adapted the script, prefers not to describe it as a remake. But Hendrickx once again takes the lead role. In the Dutch film, she played a Polish woman; in Unfinished Sky, she is an Afghan refugee.

The idea of casting the same actress sounds, at first, like an awkward, even prescriptive link. It wasn't part of the package to begin with, but Duncan says "once the story had been settled" it was suggested by the Dutch and Australian producers that he might like to meet Hendrickx, a well-known actress in Europe. It might help with funding.

"No pressure," he was told, but he went to the meeting in what calls an "appropriately cynical" frame of mind, only to be immediately impressed by her presence � "this dark, Amazonian figure" who walked into the restaurant � but also by the insights that she brought to the notion of a new film. His cynicism evaporated. And, he adds, Hendrickx had just as many doubts: her initial response had been to ask why on earth she would take a role that she had already played.

In fact, says McInnes, Hendrickx made it clear to him that she was struck by the contrast rather than the similarity between the two projects. It was, she told him, a different part and a different film.

Duncan was aware that before the shoot members of his Gold Coast-based crew had reservations about the prospect of a Dutch actress playing an Afghan woman in an Australian film. "They can be very jaded," he says, "but on the very first day of the shoot, they saw what she brought to the role, and they realised, OK, this is serious, this can be good."

The title of the film is a reference to an object, a giant jigsaw puzzle that John is working on, a photograph of a vast expanse of blue sky with wisps of clouds. And the film itself is a puzzle of fragments: there are mysteries about both characters that the audience figures out gradually.

We have fleeting glimpses of Tahmeena's memories and experiences of violence. And, bit by bit, we discover things about John's past, the reasons for his seclusion and his reluctance to engage with the world. These fragments don't tell us the whole story. There are shifts in perspective, small revelations or discoveries that change the direction of the film and our understanding of where it is going.

At the same time, there are things the audience simply doesn't need to know. The political context has been pared away, Duncan says � people don't need to have it spelled out in unnecessary or over-determining dialogue. Early in the film, John gets out a map and asks Tahmeena to show him the country she comes from. When she points to Afghanistan, viewers can already begin to form their own sense of what she has gone through.

And when Tahmeena speaks � Hendrickx learnt to say her lines in the Dari language � there are no subtitles. Audiences should not have too much information, Duncan says: they are in John's position, trying to get to know a character without the assistance of a common language.
McInnes is very positive about the challenges and rewards of "taking a story from overseas and putting it into your own culture".

He's also upbeat about one particular aspect of his performance: a scene in which he boots a footy high over the roof of his house. When his mother saw the film in Brisbane last year, she told him, he says, that he might not be a better actor than Geoffrey Rush, but he's definitely a better kick.

William McInnes Targets Australian Story

Now this sounds like fun.

Actor William McInnes next week turns the Australian Story cameras on....Australian Story.

With his tongue firmly in cheek, McInnes gives a behind-the-scenes look at what is involved in behind a subject on the ABC series.

McInnes was pursued by Australian Story for four years before he finally succumbed to participating in 2005. In fact, he'd often ring the office with obscure ideas, leaving ABC researchers unsure whether he was being serious, or just mucking around. From a comfy armchair in his wildly eccentric Melbourne warehouse, McInnes provides his unique brand of commentary on what it’s like to be the subject of the program.

‘Well, once he got started, there was simply no stopping him. Nothing was off limits…and no-one either….well, we did ask for it,’ says Caroline Jones.

Press Release:Popular actor and author William McInnes turns the tables on Australian Story in this irreverent, behind-the-scenes take on the filming process.

Before Australian Story airs each week, subjects often don’t know who will introduce them, who else has been interviewed - and most importantly, what they might have said.

From a comfy armchair in his wildly eccentric Melbourne warehouse, McInnes provides his unique brand of commentary on what it’s like to be the subject of the program.

‘Well, once he got started, there was simply no stopping him. Nothing was off limits…and no-one either….well, we did ask for it,’ says Caroline Jones.

Along the way, he fills viewers in on what's been happening in his life and crucially reveals ‘how to not look like a plank’ on a busy commuter train with a TV camera crew in tow.

McInnes spent four years on the Australian Story 'hit-list' before he finally succumbed in 2005.

Being a fan of the show, he'd often ring the office with obscure ideas, leaving our researcher unsure whether he was being serious, or just mucking around.

When filming commenced, it coincided with an intense time of his life — his first book was about to be published; his wife and muse, Sarah Watt was finishing her first feature film and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Since then, William has written two books; Sarah is in remission and has achieved international critical and popular acclaim for Look Both Ways.

The family home and rambling garden are still there, although the chooks and the old dog Dougie have died and the shed has bitten the dust in a flurry of renovations.

WARNING: Watching William Tells may induce snort-chuckling.

Article - Queensland Times, Thursday 19th of June, 2008

Movie star gives Boonah rap
June 19, 2008
By Anna Caldwell

Boonah, get ready for the big screen.

The small town, south of Ipswich, will today be up in lights, nationwide.

Boonah's IGA supermarket, its main street and even one of its pubs have received the golden touch of Aussie cinema in feature film Unfinished Sky.

County-charm spunk William McInnes stars in the Australian feature film that has been described as a love story with a thriller twist.

According to the Aussie actor, Boonah's countryside brought something special to the film.

"It is different to the stereotypical Aussie country," McInnes said.

"It is pretty with its rolling hills and charm - most people would expect those living there to have not a care in the world. The movie shows a depth to that; in a way it lifts the lid on what an isolated life can be like."

McInnes said filming in Boonah was a delight.

"The people were fantastic and the country was just beautiful," he said.

"I got to know the bloke who ran the Australian Hotel there and he was tops. The locals all wanted to have chats about the movie."

It was October 2006 when sleepy Boonah was overrun by bright lights, scaffolding, gaffer tape and clip-board carrying organisers.

Boonah Arts Council co-ordinator Julie Jackson remembered the excitement.

"Some of the Boonah locals even had the chance to be extras in the movie," Ms Jackson said.
"It was, of course, the talk of the town."

Ms Jackson said seeing the final film was very exciting for Boonah residents.

"No doubt many of us will be rushing out to see Unfinished Sky," she said.

The film tells the story of farmer John Woldring (McInnes) who discovers a troubled woman (Monic Hendrickx) miles from home, injured, traumatised and unable to speak English.

But McInnes said the film was much more than an ordinary love story.

"It is complex without being complicated," he said.

"The characters are layered; the movie works on many levels and makes you think.

"It doesn't treat people like idiots.

"Bring your brain and your heart and you'll really get something out of it.

"I think that's very exciting for Australian cinema."

And the message McInnes has for Boonah?

"You guys haven't seen the last of me," he said. Unfinished Sky opens today on limited release. Visit www.unfinishedsky.com.

Article - Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 20th of June, 2008

Love Comes Knocking
Conrad Walters


A farmer offers shelter to a battered woman who turns up on his doorstep in Unfinished Sky, reports Conrad Walters.

Suspicious, gruff, morose. Battered, petrified, lost. They don't sound like ingredients for a love story but for director Peter Duncan, these were the traits he had to work with and he's not complaining.

After all, he created the characters.

Duncan, best known as the director of Children Of The Revolution, has made a subtle return to the screen with a challenging romance titled Unfinished Sky. The fictional story is that of John (William McInnes), a widowed farmer alone on an isolated Queensland property, and Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx), an illegal refugee isolated by language and culture.

Without explanation, Tahmeena collapses outside John's home one morning, bloodied and hallucinating with images of abuse. John, who would rather wallow in misery, takes care of this uninvited survivor and protects her from forces he trusts even less than himself.

It makes for a story of forgiveness and acceptance, although McInnes conjures such a disagreeable John from the start that it seems the climb towards love may prove an impossible ascent.

The basis for Unfinished Sky is a Dutch film of a decade ago called The Polish Bride but Duncan took that as little more than a starting point to write and direct his own Australian take on redemption.

Asked about the difference between the films, Duncan says the earlier movie was far lighter in tone - the original farmer is instantly likeable - but he wanted his own work to avoid the first film's "periods of unalloyed happiness".

"Audiences only really like happiness for a moment. Then they want more trouble," he says. "I wanted there to be a darkness and some mystery about the character of John, so the audience wonders whether or not [Tahmeena] is in a better place than the place she escaped from."

The earlier film had the same Dutch actress, Hendrickx, as its female lead. She was understandably wary of stepping into the same creative stream, Duncan says.
He recalls her reaction: "Why would I want to do that? I've already done it."

Duncan, too, was doubtful. The suggestion came from Dutch backers who helped produce Unfinished Sky and he admits he was "cynical", though open-minded enough to go along with it.
"But she then read the script and what she said to me was, 'This is a different movie. It's a different character. It's a whole new world.'"

In retrospect, Duncan rejoices in her decision, which let him match the intimidating physical presence of McInnes with the powerful Amazon looks of Hendrickx. "It was one of those rare coincidences of commerce and art," he says.

McInnes apparently agrees. "I knew about Monic and her reputation as a really terrific actor," he says in press material for the film.

"She's the hamburger with the lot."

The two actors had little time beforehand to build the chemistry for a love story but, according to Duncan, this had its benefits, given that the film begins with two people incapable of communication.

In one of their first meetings, where Duncan explained an early scene in which John showers the blood and dirt from 0, McInnes turned to his co-star and blurted, "So, you're gonna be starkers?"

Hendrickx turned to Duncan, bewildered, but McInnes persisted. "You know, starkers. In the raw. Buff."

Eventually, the director translated.

As filming progressed, Duncan says, the actors built a trust that mirrored that developed by their characters. "She really got him. She really found him extremely funny. By the end of it, they were firm mates."

UNFINISHED SKY

Director Peter Duncan Stars William McInnes, Monic Hendrickx, David Field Rated M. Screening now.

Article - The Courier Mail, Thursday, 12th of June, 2008

Peace shattered by unfinished business

WILLIAM McInnes might not yet be an international name of the ranking
of a Russell Crowe or Hugh Jackman but he does give this Brisbane-Dutch
co-production something that too many Australian movies
lack -- a known star.

McInnes (who became a national favourite when he joined SeaChange)
and his co-star, Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx (featured in the
original Dutch movie on which writer-director Peter Duncan (Passion)
based his screenplay) make a persuasive partnership in Duncan's
taut drama.

It's also a character study, although there's a jolt or two when loose
ends are tied together in a punchy finale.

While it's a small-scale drama, it unfolds more efficiently than many
recent Australian-made ``thrillers''.

Duncan's treatment, going behind the headlines to depict the abuse
of a female refugee as just one tense element of his story, marks
the debut of Brisbane-based New Holland Pictures (headed by husband
and wife Mark and Cathy Overett).

Tall and rangy McInnes represents perfect casting as farmer John Waldring.
The farmer has lived alone on his property southeast of Brisbane for
the past six years since the death of his wife, Kate, (in circumstances
still discussed in the local community).

The film was shot at Beaudesert and Boonah, but cinematographer Robert
Humphreys hasn't set out to provide tourist drawcard images
of this part of the world.

Waldring appears happy in his isolation from the wider community.
His peace is shattered when a wounded and bruised non-English-speaking
woman Tahmeena (Hendrickx) somehow finds her way to the farm.
Flashback sequences leave no doubt that Tahmeena has been assaulted,
but by whom and why?

She's unable to explain her circumstances to her baffled host, who
offers first-aid, a bed, lodging and some of his late wife's clothes.

Sensibly, Waldring denies any knowledge of the woman when police sergeant
Carl Allen (David Field) and then the local publican Bob
(Bille Brown) and his son (Christopher Sommers) inquire whether she's
turned up on the property.

As she communicates hesitantly in her broken English, Tahmeena's background
in Afghanistan comes into focus.

Waldring tries to help her locate Brisbane-based family (involving
scenes set in Red Hill), but on their way home from this trip, they
come upon a motorcyclist lying injured on the deserted road.

When the motorcyclist recalls being assisted by a kindly woman, his
parents (Roy Billing and Mercia Deane-Johns) visit the farm, trying
to identify this guardian angel.

Where can you run when you have nowhere to hide? Waldring and Tahmeena
-- now lovers -- will soon find the tranquillity of their remote
hideaway shattered. The finale is a sombre scene, nicely directed
by Duncan.

There might be a future for small Australian films as well crafted
as this one. (90 min)