The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
27A
When
Wed 8 Apr 2026
See below for additional related events
Winner of the AFI Awards for Best Feature and Actor, Storm and producer Haydn Keenan’s audacious first feature was made when both were in their early 20s. A key film of the Australian feature film “revival”, it is an incendiary portrait of the mental health system and “a reflection of the society that built it” (Storm).
A middle-aged alcoholic (Robert McDarra, in an extraordinary lead performance) is given a six-week sentence for a minor offence and becomes trapped in a cycle of incarceration and abuse when he volunteers for psychiatric treatment and is subjected to section 27A of Queensland’s Mental Health Act. With Bill Hunter and Richard Moir.
To be introduced by the film’s producer, Haydn Keenan.
Films in this program
There are no upcoming related events at this time.
About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
