Evil Angels

Meryl Streep and Sam Neill star as Lindy and Michael Chamberlain in Fred Schepisi’s powerful retelling of the infamous Australian court case that saw a grieving mother condemned in the court of public opinion.

Fred Schepisi’s Evil Angels retells the true story of Lindy Chamberlain (Meryl Streep in an Academy Award-nominated performance), who, during a family camping trip near Uluru, witnesses a dingo take her baby daughter Azaria from their tent. When Azaria is never found, Lindy and her husband Michael (Sam Neill) become the centre of one of the most highly publicised and divisive court cases in Australian history.

As public suspicion intensifies and media scrutiny escalates, Lindy is condemned for appearing too stoic, composed and emotionally distant throughout the investigation and trial. Schepisi’s adaptation is compassionate in its approach, rejecting the hysteria surrounding the case, while Jill Bilcock’s editing carefully constructs a portrait of a woman increasingly isolated by public perception, institutional failure and the relentless pressure of the media.

Curator’s note
Premiering in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Evil Angels stars Meryl Streep in an Academy Award-nominated performance as Lindy Chamberlain, alongside Sam Neill as Michael Chamberlain, in Fred Schepisi’s retelling of one of Australia’s most controversial and heavily publicised legal cases.

Jill Bilcock’s editing is central to the film’s emotional and political impact. Interweaving courtroom proceedings, television news footage and fragments of public commentary, the edit captures the escalating intensity of media scrutiny and the rapid shift from uncertainty to public condemnation. Rather than heightening drama through sensationalism, Bilcock maintains a restrained, character-focused approach, continually returning the audience to Lindy Chamberlain’s lived experience and emotional reality.

Through its measured pacing and careful modulation between observation and pressure, Evil Angels becomes a reflection on public judgement, media hysteria and the ways Australian society constructs narratives of guilt long before legal resolution is reached.