Heatwave

Dircetor Phillip Noyce's compelling follow-up to Newsfront, Heatwave is the provocative Australian political thriller inspired by the disappearance of Sydney journalist and anti-development campaigner Juanita Neilsen.

Like Newsfront, Heatwave details the moral dilemmas of a man of conscience – in this case ambitious architect Stephen West (Richard Moir), whose inner-city housing project has been compromised by a corrupt property developer (Chris Haywood) and his big business cronies. With standover men sent in to evict demonstrating squatters, social justice compaigner Kate Dean (Judy Davis) alerts West to a looming conspiracy when her friend, an activist and journalist, disappears and is presumed murdered.

Noyce brilliantly evokes the oppressive mood of a stifling heatwave in inner Sydney in this compelling conspiracy thriller where death, deceit and corruption taint all.