a few flaws but otherwise a great emotionally engaging story

Rating: 8/10 (20 April 2015)

This movie screened on free to air TV in Sydney last night- only a few months after it was released at the cinema, which must be a record. One of the backers was channel 7 so I guess that explains that. Anyway Its a great film despite a few flaws, mostly technical. I noticed a few camera flashes (is that what that's called?) early in the film- and the scene where Russell strikes water he has cotton wool in his left ear (not sure if that was intentional IE to protect the actor from infection or something the character would have done) the cotton wool isn't in his ear in the next scene) Anyway- very minor flaws. Like a lot of Australians- my grandfather was at Gallipoli so anything on this subject will always get a strong emotional response from me. The acting was excellent- Olga K once again showing what a great actor she is. The Turkish cast, including the boy were all excellent. And its good to see it shown in a mainstream film how things were for the Turkish people- after all they lost over 70,000 in that battle- it is an event of obvious great importance to the Turkish people. Yes- there have been better films about Gallipoli but this takes it to a very personal level about a father grieving for his sons- I assume nothing is known about the rest of the real story that the film is based on - we will never know what happened to the father who went there to find his sons body, so apart from that element, I assume the rest of the story is a fiction- and an excellent one it is too. Good to see on screen at last respect for our Turkish friends.Its their country and we should not have been there. Its now holy ground for both Australian and Turk.