What would you do to protect your family’s honour?
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This is the question Burns Point, the new Australian thriller, creatively explores.
Written and produced by Chris Blackburn, and directed by his son Tim, the father and son duo cleverly places the audience in morally uncomfortable situations, forcing us to question the danger of blind family loyalty.
Mr Blackburn said the idea for the movie stemmed from a seemingly insignificant outing with a friend one day and a conversation surrounding a murder in the newspaper they both read.
“If someone killed my children, I’d kill them,” his friend responded with unexpected veracity to which Mr Blackburn continued to argue that a reasonable, everyday person wouldn’t go to that extreme level.
But again, the friend disagreed creating a series of questions for the writer.
“I’m interested in everyday, law abiding citizens, what would they do if terrible things happened ?” he said. “Would they stand up and say they’re not going to cop it?”
The movie follows the internal conflict of a young man who finds that his sister has died at the hands of her fiance. Grief is soon overridden by anger as the fiance’s father, a police officer, manipulates the jury in an attempt to set his son free.
Set in a fictional city, themes of revenge, pride, love and honesty take the main stage, which contrasts the calm landscape of Northern NSW.
“You would say revenge is never productive for anyone, it never solved anything,” he said, reflecting on the films message.
“To want and desire revenge when you’ve been wronged is a waste of time. It will only end in more trouble as this movie shows.”
Burns Point won best film at this year’s Sanctuary Cove Film Festival and was also selected for the Byron Bay Film Festival and Western Australia’s CinefestOZ Festival.
Mr Blackburn said regional communities and cinemas are an integral platform for the Australian film industry, and encouraged spaces like the Lilac Cinema to spread local content. Burns Point will screen at the Lilac Cinema until February 24.