The Devil's Playground

Australia, 1976

Film
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The subject of a Catholic adolescence in a preparatory school for seminarians set in provincial Victoria, 1953, is substantially autobiographical which explains the engaging intimacy that Schepisi achieves in his first film. An unusual feature, given its subject, is the avoidance of a single point of view. It is not just the youths that are trapped by the Irish Catholic rigidities of the institution but the staff as well. The film does not question belief so much as the institutional distortions that are engendered by the imperatives of belief. Cast includes Arthur Dignam, Nick Tate, Simon Burke and Thomas Keneally.

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Credits

producer/director

Fred Schepisi

production company

Feature Film House Productions

Duration

01:38:00:00

Production places
Australia
Production dates
1976

Collection metadata

Collected

82 times

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/77913--the-devils-playground/ |title=The Devil's Playground |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=29 March 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}