Dreaming of the Devil: Revisiting Ted Kotcheff's 'Wake in Fright'

Less than warmly received upon its release and thought lost for four decades, Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright – about a schoolteacher who finds himself marooned in a small outback town – is now recognised as a seminal text of the Australian New Wave. Gabrielle O'Brien unpacks the film's commentaries on masculinity and insularity by examining its reliance on irrationality, existentialist themes and the outsider's gaze.

Additional keywords:
parochialism, bogan, rural, regional, Tiboonda, chauvinism, macho, machismo.