Radiance

Three sisters with different fathers come together in the house of their late mother. In the 24 hours around the funeral, painful childhood memories and old grievances come to the surface. Mae is bitter after having looked after her prematurely senile mother for years. She despises her elder sister Cressy, who was able to develop and become a successful opera singer. The youngest sister Nona is a party girl who inherited her mother’s lust for men and is pregnant by a rodeo cowboy. The drama builds slowly, until the moment when the sisters are no longer able to restrain themselves and they have to confront each other with their fury and pain.All three actresses were involved in the play on which Radiance is based and a further intensive rehearsal period preceded the film. The lovehate relationship between their characters is very convincing. The beautiful landscapes, the bush and the deserted beach around the house contribute to the melancholy and lonely mood that is continually tangible, underlined by the atmospheric music, from sluggish country music to aboriginal chanting. Perkins tackles aboriginal issues surrounding inheritance, repression, land rights and identity without these dominating the film.