Van Diemen's Land

The true story of Australia's most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce and his infamous escape into the beautiful yet brutal Tasmanian wilderness.

A point of no return for convicts banished from their homeland, Van Diemen's Land was a feared and dreaded penal settlement at the end of the earth. The entrance to its remote station of secondary punishment, Macquarie Harbour, was named 'Hell's Gates' by its prisoners as a reference to the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno – 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here' – was plastered at the Harbour's mouth as a warning to all souls sent there.

In 1822, eight convicts escaped Macquarie Harbour in a fateful bid for freedom. This band of Irish, English and Scottish thieves were immediately hurled into chaos as their plan failed and they were thrust into the heart of a harsh and foreboding landscape. With little food or equipment, in a place these immigrants knew little about, they battled a merciless enemy – the unforgiving, barren land – a land where God wields an axe.

Special Features

• Audio commentary with director and co-writer Jonathan auf der Heide, co-writer and lead actor Oscar Redding and cinematographer Ellery Ryan
• A Journey Up River: Making Van Diemen's Land
• Three additional featurettes: The Battle of the Beards, Subtleties of the Slate and From Bailbo to Van Diemen's Land
• Theatrical teaser and trailer
• Original Storyboards
• ATOM study guide

Classification: MA 15+ (strong violence and coarse language)

Running Time: 104 minutes