Red Hill

Colour, 35 mm
Australia, 2010, 94 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Young police officer Shane Cooper has just moved to the small town of Red Hill where he and his pregnant wife Alice want to start a family. His first day on the job is a doozy: incorrigible murderer Jimmy Conway has just escaped from prison and he’s heading for Red Hill to take revenge. The situation quickly turns into a nightmare, and if Shane is to survive he must take the law into his own hands. This dark and skillfully shot thriller, outstanding for its sophisticated camerawork, takes place during the course of one day and night. Packed with explosive violence and cruelty, the story focuses on relations between Shane, Old Bill – the brusque head of the local police – and the monstrous, heartless murderer Conway. Patrick Hughes’s feature debut is a western shot as a modern police drama, inspired by the work of Robert Rodriguez, the Coen brothers, and George Miller.

About the director

Patrick Hughes is an award-winning creator of commercials for global brands (Playstation, BMW, Honda, among others) who made a significant hit with the short commercial "Signs” for Schweppes; it has had nearly five million views on YouTube and took a Golden Lion at the Cannes Lions advertising fest. His first short films, The Darkening and Truth or the Morning After, won ATOM Awards in 1996. Hughes’s graduation short, The Director (1999), screened at numerous international festivals, taking several awards. Then he wrote, directed, and edited the short film The Lighter (2001), which took Best Film at Tropfest. The dark thriller Red Hill is the director’s feature debut.