Australian Director Robert Connolly (The Dry, Paper Planes) brings Tim Winton's best-selling story Blueback to the big screen for Perth Festival's Lotterywest films.
The film follows the story of Abby, a young girl living with her environmentalist mother on the pristine southern coast. While diving, Abby forms a bond with a magnificent wild blue groper living in her local reef. Realising that the fish is under threat, Abby takes on poachers to help protect the ocean that she loves.
A raft of beloved Australian actors including Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell and Eric Bana feature, as well as Western Australian Clarence Ryan. It also stars up-and-coming talent Ilsa Fogg and Ariel Joy Donoghue.
The production was filmed in the Great Southern region of WA, featuring the stunning coastal beauty of Bremer Bay, thanks to the McGowan Government's Western Australian Regional Screen Fund (WARSF) and Screenwest funding.
The film returns home to WA after making its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Blueback will screen at Somerville Auditorium from Monday 21 to Sunday 27 November ahead of opening in cinemas Australia-wide on New Year's Day.
As stated by Culture and the Arts Minister David Templeman:
"The Western Australian Regional Screen Fund has enabled so many excellent productions in regional Western Australian, including H is for Happiness and the Mystery Road series.
"The screen industry is a big employer - hundreds of people work on set to make a film come to life, which is why the McGowan Government is investing in the development of a screen production facility in Malaga.
"We are also developing a Screen Industry Strategy to ensure that we maximise the benefits from this investment, and that includes incentives such as the WARSF and the $20 million Production Attraction Incentive.
"A recent $1 million uplift to Screenwest production funding will assist in maintaining a steady pipeline of production in WA and create further employment and training opportunities for local screen practitioners.
"I look forward to seeing this classic novel transformed for the big screen and I hope Australian audiences enjoy it."
