Celia (film)

Plot

In suburban Melbourne in the 1950s, amidst the Red Scare and a rabbit plague, Celia (Rebecca Smart) is a troubled nine-year-old caught up in these events, as well as family crises, and whose response to them eventually leads to tragic consequences.

Cast

Production

Ann Turner was a graduate of Swinburne who had worked at Film Victoria and the Australian Film Commission as a consultant. She was inspired to write the film by an article in the paper about the Bolte government's rabbit muster in the 1950s.

The script was written in 1984 when it won the AWGIE for Best Unproduced Screenplay.

Release

Celia grossed $23,336 and ¥ 32,255 at the box office in Australia and Japan.

Turner won the Grand Prix award at the 1989 Créteil International Women's Film Festival and for her part as Alice Tanner, Victoria Longley won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role award from the Australian Film Institute.

To date, the film has been released on DVD in Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More recently it was released on video in the United States and Canada by Scorpion Releasing under their sub-label Katarina's Nightmare Theatre.