Everynight ...
Everynight is an Australian drama film
directed by
Alkinos Tsilimidos
and released in 1994.
Based on a play of the same name, written by
Ray Mooney, the film details the early
life of contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery and is
set inside Melbourne's HM Prison Pentridge
's maximum security H Division .
Filming
was undertaken at HM Prison Geelong
.
Plot
Dale, a remandee, is awaiting a court hearing and yet to be
sentenced, highlighting the horrific injustice of the repeated
beatings he's subjected to. Although the first depicted beating
lasts less than 3 minutes of screen time, the actual beating it was
based on allegedly lasted a gruelling 7 hours.
Initially Dale submits to the psychological and physical traumas of
his situation. By day they attempt to break his spirit and sanity
by forcing him to smash blue-stone with a pick, invoking images of
Australia's convict heritage, while another inmate is compelled to
perform more demeaning behaviour such as licking
faeces off toilet doors. Gradually Dale becomes
indifferent to the bashings and horrors of prison life and develops
an alternative, subversive way to exist and express his rage.
At one point Dale is depicted pacing his cell naked and mumbling
incoherently. It seems as if the ego shattering experience has
forced him to the verge of insanity. It's not until he claims :
"I've resigned from this life" and urges the other inmates to do so
as well, that we see method in his madness. By refusing to play the
dehumanising prison game anymore the guards have lost their threat
of psychological and physical suppression over him and he in turn
has reaffirmed the power of the simple utterance of which he can
never be deprived. Although contact between the inmates is strictly
forbidden at night they manage to shout and finally communicate
through the prison walls. "Unity in adversity!", Dale shouts
beginning a chant which reverberates throughout the cells.
Meanwhile Berriman, realising the threat of pure violence or
psychological abuse is no longer effective starts to panic.
As Dale walks defiantly from the prison in the last scene to be
tried, the failure of the correctional system to produce docile,
disciplined bodies pulls its last punch. Even if the system has
enframed Dale he has maintained his sanity and his voice.
Awards
The film
was awarded the 1994 Best First Fiction Film Prize at the Montreal World
Film Festival
and also nominated for Best
Director and Best
Screenplay at the 1994 Australian Film Institute
Awards and a nomination for the Bronze Horse award at the 1994
Stockholm
International Film Festival.
Cast
References
- Everynight... Everynight, National Film and Sound
Archive, Accessed January 18, 2008
External links
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