2000 Weeks

A forgotten landmark in Australian cinema, directed by a pre–Alvin Purple Tim Burstall, returns to the big screen at last.

Journalist Will is living a bohemian life in late-1960s Melbourne, maintaining two romantic relationships with the approval of both partners. Yet all is not well in his world: his girlfriend, Jacky (a luminescent Jeanie Drynan), is about to move overseas; his father is on his deathbed; and Will is growing increasingly disillusioned with what he perceives as a cultural malaise. When his friend Noel returns from a successful sojourn in London to produce a TV series, the initially amiable mood between the two men quickly turns to animosity, throwing Will’s personal and professional life into crisis.

Rarely screened in the half-century since its release, 2000 Weeks was a major early precursor to the Australian New Wave, and one of the very few features made in the country in the 1960s. A far cry from the ‘ocker’ comedies that later made its director famous, the European-style debut feature from Burstall (Petersen, MIFF 2004; Hot Centre of the World, MIFF 2004) serves as a time capsule of an Australian culture caught between two worlds – and between the past and the future.