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We’ve been hearing good things about writer-director Jonathan auf der Heide’s debut feature - a gritty, grisly tale of murder and eventually cannibalism - Van Diemen’s Land, so we thought it worth a mention that the film is due for release in the UK on DVD. The movie stars Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel and Paul Ashcroft, in telling the true story of Australia’s most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce, and his infamous escape into the brutal interior of Van Diemen’s Land (aka Tasmania). Watching the trail the whole thing has definite dark and foreboding feel, with some jaw-dropping cinematography. This has the looks of a survival horror, all grown up. Vdl goes on sale in the UK in May. Synopsis: A point of no return for convicts banished from their homeland for repeated crimes, Van Diemen's Land was a feared and dreaded penal settlement situated in...

Movies about cannibalism come in two (and a half) distinct varieties. They'll either go the exploitation/entertainment route with films like Cannibal Holocaust, Sweeney Todd, and Delicatessen, or they'll go for the dramatic angle with films like Alive and Keep The River On Your Right. (The remaining one half is the rare combination of the two and my favorite of the genre... Ravenous).  The dramatic ones are usually more powerful as they present an uncompromising and bleak look at one of the rawer aspects of humanity. They ask what it would take and how long we might last before the darkness within us all rises up and usurps not only the rule of law and common decency, but our table manners as well... In 1822 Tasmania a group of prisoners escape from their captor and head off into the wilderness toward freedom. At least that was the plan. Instead the group find a never-ending landscape of mountains, woodlands...

Showing our support for independent film, we invite you to have a look at Bavaria Film International's "Van Diemen's Land," starring Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel, Mark Leonard Winter, Paul Ashcroft, Torquil Neilson, Thomas Wright and Greg Stone. The drama opens Septemnber 24th in limited locations. Jonathan auf der Heide makes his feature-length directorial debut on the prject after a single credit for the short "Hell's Gates" last year. The true story of Australia’s most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce and his infamous journey 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. In 1822...