''Blueback'' is a 2022 Australian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Robert Connolly Robert Connolly (born 1967) is an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is best known as the director and writer of the feature films '' Balibo'', '' Three Dollars'', '' The Bank'' and '' The Dry' ...

, from a screenplay written by Connolly and

Tim Winton Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the ...

, based on Winton's 1997 novel of the same name. The film centres on a young girl who befriends a wild blue groper while diving, and becomes a passionate activist for protecting the ecosystem of Australia's

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s from destruction. It stars

Mia Wasikowska Mia Wasikowska ( ; born 25 October 1989) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut on the Australian television drama '' All Saints'' in 2004, followed by her feature film debut in '' Suburban Mayhem'' (2006). She first became known t ...

Radha Mitchell Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell (born 12 November 1973) is an Australian actress. She began her career on television, playing Catherine O'Brien on the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'' (1996–1997), before transitioning to working i ...

, Ilsa Fogg, Liz Alexander, Ariel Donoghue, Clarence Ryan, Pedrea Jackson,

Erik Thomson Erik Thomson is a Scottish-born New Zealand-Australian actor. He is known for playing Hades in the television series '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', '' Xena Warrior Princess'' and '' Young Hercules'', Dr. Mitch Stevens in '' All Saints' ...

Eddie Baroo Eddie Baroo (born 25 September 1968) is an Australian actor, screenwriter, singer and guitarist. He is the lead singer and frontman of the band Stodgewood. His notable films are '' Red Hill'' (2010), ''Crawlspace A crawl space or crawlspace ...

and

Eric Bana Eric Martin Andrew Banadinović (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana (), is an Australian actor. He began his career in the sketch-comedy series '' Full Frontal'' before gaining notice in the comedy drama '' The Castle'' (199 ...

. The film premiered at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022. The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represente ...

on 10 September 2022, and had its theatrical release in Australia on 1 January 2023. At the

2023 ARIA Music Awards The 2023 ARIA Music Awards are the 37th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) and consist of a series of awards, including the 2023 ARIA Awards, ARIA Artisan Awa ...

, the soundtrack was nominated for

ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Original Soundtrack / Cast / Show Album is an award presented within the Fine Arts Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genre ...

Cast

as Abby Jackson ** Ilsa Fogg as teenage Abby ** Ariel Donoghue as young Abby *

as Dora Jackson **

Liz Alexander Liz is a female name of Hebrew origin, meaning "God's Promise". It is also a short form of Elizabeth, Elisabeth, Lisbeth, Lizanne, Liszbeth, Lizbeth, Lizabeth, Lyzbeth, Lisa, Lizette, Alyssa, and Eliza. People * Liz Allan (cricketer) (born 1 ...

as older Dora * Clarence Ryan as Briggs ** Pedrea Jackson as teenage Briggs *

as Costello *

as Merv *

as 'Mad' Macka * Albert Mwangi as Gitundu * Dalip Sondhi as Mr. Carlisle * Nick Paranamos as Macka's son

Production

In February 2021, a film adaptation of '' Blueback'' by

was announced to be moving forward, with

announced to be directing, after years of development.

and

were set to star in the film, with Bana reteaming with Connolly after the Australian success of '' The Dry''. The film was packaged and pitched for distributors in the film market at the

71st Berlin International Film Festival The 71st annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 1 to 5 March 2021 as a virtual festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Scott Roxborough"Berlin Film Festival Unveils Panorama, Encounters Titles" ''The Hollywood Reporter'', 10 Feb ...

. The film officially began

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

on 22 March 2021, in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Release

''Blueback'' had its world premiere at the

on 10 September 2022. It was theatrically released in Australia by

Roadshow Films Roadshow Entertainment (formerly known as Roadshow Home Video from 1982–1993) is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow (formerly Roadshow Home Video and Roadshow Entertainment) tha ...

on 1 January 2023. Its Australian premiere occurred on 22 November 2022 at the opening of the Somerville Film festival in collaboration with the 2023 Perth Festival. The film is released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

Roadshow Entertainment Roadshow Entertainment (formerly known as Roadshow Home Video from 1982–1993) is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow (formerly Roadshow Home Video and Roadshow Entertainment) th ...

on 29 March, 2023.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's consensus reads, "While it may be narratively slight and somewhat preachy, ''Blueback'' is a beautifully filmed family drama with an ecologically conscious message." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The soundtrack was nominated for Best Independent Classical Album or EP at the 2023

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at Blacket Hot ...

References

External links

* {{Robert Connolly 2022 films 2022 drama films 2020s Australian films 2020s English-language films Australian drama films Films based on Australian novels Films directed by Robert Connolly Roadshow Entertainment films Screen Australia films Films scored by Nigel Westlake Films about mother–daughter relationships