Set in mid-1950s Australia, with the fear of communism in the air, Ann Turner's refreshingly unsentimental debut feature depicts a long hot summer seen through the eyes and over-active imagination of nine-year-old Celia.
Shaken by the death of her beloved grandmother, Celia finds herself adrift between the cruel games and rituals of childhood and the incomprehensible world of grown-ups. With monstrous creatures stalking her dreams by night, those imagined terrors blur by day with the banal brutality of the adult world and lead to tragic and shocking consequences.
This dark fable of childhood's end ranks alongside Lord of the Flies, The 400 Blows, Stand By Me and Pan’s Labyrinth.
Presented from a new 2K restoration, our world premiere, region-free Blu-ray Special Edition features an all-new expansive documentary on the film's background and legacy made especially for this release by director Ann Turner, an interview with the director, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Maria Lewis on Celia, plus a booklet with essays by Michael Brooke and Professor Joy Damousi and more!
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Supplements
- Celia's World (2021): a new, exclusive and expansive documentary on the film's background and legacy made especially for this release by director Ann Turner
- A filmed interview with Ann Turner
- There's Something About Celia (2021): Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of '1000 Women in Horror', in conversation with Maria Lewis at the Australian Centre for Moving Image
- Extensive image gallery
- 24-page booklet featuring essays by film historian Michael Brooke and Professor Joy Damousi, and ‘The Hobyahs’, a traditional folktale featured in the film