''Weekend of Shadows'' is a 1978 film directed by

Tom Jeffrey Tom Morven Jeffrey (born 26 September 1938) is an Australian film and television producer and director. He worked at the ABC and BBC, becoming an ABC drama director in the late 1960s.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: ...

and starring

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

Premise

In the 1930s, a farmer's wife in a small town is murdered. Suspicion falls on a Polish labourer and a posse is formed to catch him.

Cast

as 'Rabbit' *

Melissa Jaffer Melissa Jaffer (born 1 December 1936) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her stage and television roles, but has also appeared in many films. Career Jaffer started her career in theatre productions in the mid 1950s has made many ...

as Vi *

Wyn Roberts Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts, Baron Roberts of Conwy, PC (10 July 1930 – 13 December 2013) was a Welsh Conservative politician. His father was a Minister in a chapel in Llansadwrn, Anglesey, and they lived in the schoolhouse. He was Member of ...

as Sergeant Caxton *Graham Rouse as Ab Nolan * Graeme Blundell as Bernie Collins * Bill Hunter as Bosun *

Bryan Brown Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include '' Breaker Morant'' (1980), ...

as Bennett

Production

Writer

Peter Yeldham Peter Alan Yeldham (25 April 1927 – 20 September 2022) was an Australian screenwriter for motion pictures and television, playwright and novelist. Biography Peter Yeldham was born in Gladstone, near Smithtown, New South Wales, in 1927. L ...

later called the film a "real disaster... we had constant changes and insecurity about it, right up to the day of shooting. I think many of these changes didn't help the film." Shooting commenced in July 1977 in Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills. The film was a commercial disappointment. Director

I screened the film to Hugh Atkinson, the writer of the novel, after we had finished it and he came up to me afterwards and I remember him saying quite clearly, "You've got it." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You understand the ending." And I still didn't know whether I had it right, whether I was on his wavelength, and I said, "Please explain, Hugh." And he said, "It's about the Crucifixion." And I said, "Yes, well, I didn't really realise that, but if you can see that in the ending and if that's what your original intention was and I've unwittingly achieved that for you, I'm very pleased.".. The film was actually looking at the power of the group and how it can get out of hand.Interview with Tom Jeffrey, 12 November 1998
accessed 19 October 2012

References

External links

*
''Weekend of Shadows''
at Oz Movies 1978 films Australian crime drama films Films set in the 1930s Films set in Australia 1970s English-language films Films directed by Tom Jeffrey 1970s Australian films {{1970s-Australia-film-stub