Death in Brunswick, Australia, 1991

Director: John Ruane
Producer: Tim White
Cinematography: Ellery Ryan
Original Music: Phil Judd, Peter Volaris

With: Sam Neill, Zoe Carides, John Clarke, Yvonne Lawley, Nick Lathouris

35mm, 106 mins, M-contains violence and offensive language

Carl Fitzgerald is down-on-his-luck until he meets Sophie, a beautiful Greek girl. He gets a job as a cook, but accidentally kills fellow worker Mustafa. He turns to his unscrupulous best friend for help and together they attempt to dispose of the body.

“He wears a leather jacket and rides a bike (push, not motor) and has a Screamin' Jay Hawkins poster in his hallway, and likes a drink but Carl (Sam Neill) has a refined but overbearing mother who has come to stay - again - at his messy Brunswick pad. These are a few of the details that build layers in John Ruane's hugely entertaining black comedy, in which the droll (John Clark's Dave) and the naïve (Sam Neill's Carl) come together for some nice, dry comedy. (Well, there is one famous scene in which the humour is dry all right, but the contents of a coffin are not.) It's some of the best work  from both actors. Zoe Carides is a zesty Sophie and Yvonne Lawley makes Carl's mother a real, three dimensional character. Dialogue is excellent, and the situations ripe for the kind of laconic humour that fires Australian language and character. With its multicultural setting in suburban Melbourne, its contemporary tone and its snappy tone, Death in Brunswick is as fresh today as when it was made, with plenty of chuckles and some laugh-out-loud moments to cherish. But the screenplay is grounded in credible characters and incident, and has enough heart to give it ballast - and mean something amidst the humour. John Ruane handles the material with skill and pace, avoiding the trap of pushing it for its comedic value; and the romance, with its undercurrent of tension and danger, is a dramatic balance to the comedy. The result is a well rounded, engaging and lasting work.” – Andrew Urban, Urban Cinefile, 22/11/2007

Watch the Trailer

Drawing on our collection, the NZ Film Archive is pleased to announce our partnership with the Museum of Wellington City and Sea as part of the 2012 Death and Diversity Exhibition 

From the comic Carry Me Back to the challenging documentary Last Western Heretic, The Film Archive has drawn on our collection to present fictional and non-fictional representations of the mortality of man. Special features include  Macario, the never-screened in NZ Mexican film, Sinead Donnelly introducing her three documentaries, and The Orator, the first Samoan feature length film.

Fear of death and dying, actual death and dying, and what happens to those who have died and those who are left behind will all provide potent dramatic filmic material (and the occasional laugh!)