Can one create sublime music without mental anguish? Audiences will recall the exceptionally intense dramatic tale of the concert pianist David Helfgott mainly thanks to the expressive but at its core restrained performance given by Geoffrey Rush, who played the main protagonist as a grown man, long after he became a famous pianist under the tutelage of his strict father (Armin Mueller-Stahl). A straightforward story about the line between genius and madness, the influences of one’s upbringing on mental health, and the notion that behind despotic behavior there may lie a pitifully fragile soul, Shine departed from typical Australian cinema in its turn from social realism towards compelling, unapologetic melodrama.