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| The Devil's Playground |
Schepisi's semi-autobiographical account of Catholic seminary school life in the 1950s offers an unusually tough-minded and rigorous approach to the coming-of-age theme so common in Australian cinema.
A major critical success of the 1970s, the film charters the effects of rigid discipline, sanctioned by religious authority, on both the boys, in their tortuous adjustment to puberty, and on the brothers of the teaching order, struggling to live up to the strictures of the order.
Establishing Schepisi as one of Australia's most talented directors,
The Devil's Playground was one of the first Australian films to be selected for the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
