NFSA's Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection: The Devil's Playground

Director Fred Schepisi has had an illustrious career, with credits including Plenty, Six Degrees of Separation, Last Orders, and the notable local productions The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Evil Angels. None of this success should seem surprising when one revisits his first feature, The Devil's Playground, made when the Australian film industry was engaged in a major revival. Brian McFarlane contends that the film stands high for its combination of tough-mindedness and sensitivity in dealing with youth's constraint by an oppressive system, while equally resisting becoming a mere polemic.

Additional keywords: repression, celibacy, priest, seminary, Arthur Dignam, Nick Tate, Peter Cox, Simon Burke.