Project Detail

Black And White

Synopsis

The script is based on a real life miscarriage of justice that is part of Australian history.

It is 1958 in conservative Adelaide, a city that prides itself on it's peaceful, well-bred qualities. A young lawyer, David O' Sullivan, excitable and charming, is given the news that he has drawn a 'lottery prize' - a legal aid case for an aborigine who has been arrested for the rape and murder of an eight year old girl in the far west desert town of Ceduna. O' Sullivan soon concludes that the aborigine has been framed by the local police and decides he must take a stand. He finds himself pitted against Chamberlain, South Australia's Crown Prosecutor, a forbidding but tremendously charismatic character. O' Sullivan and his legal partner, Helen Devaney, embark on a 'David and Goliath' battle that threatens the world of closed ranks, hidden evidence and the establishment.

Aided by the young Rupert Murdoch, who is making a name for himself, O' Sullivan takes the case to the highest courts in the Commonwealth. Manoeuvring narratives of political manipulation, police corruption and personal crisis, this is a wonderfully compelling story of right and wrong.

Details

Year: 2002
Type of project: Features
Running time: tbc
Format: 35mm Kodak
Director: Craig Lahiff
Producer: Helen Leake, Nik Powell
Screenwriter: Louis Nowra
Director of Photography: Geoffrey Simpson ASC
Sound: Toivo Lember
Principal cast: Robert Carlyle, Charles Dance, Kerry Fox

Genre

Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

B & W Productions Pty Ltd

c/o Scala Productions
15 Frith Street
London W1D 4RE
UK

T 00 44 (0)20 7734 7060

scalaprods@aol.com

Sales Company

Svensk Film Industri

169 86 Stockholm
Sweden

T 00 46 8 680 3644

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Black And White

Synopsis

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