Birds Eye View : Out Now : Beautiful Kate

Beautiful Kate

Filmmaker: Directed and written by Rachel Ward

Australia / 2010 / 101 mins / UK. Cert 15 / English

Opening Weekend Date: 30 July 2010

Cinemas screening the film: Curzon Soho, HMV Wilmbledon & Key Cities

Look out for our exclusive interview with Director and Screenwriter Rachel Ward, coming soon to the Birds Eye View Blog.

Beautiful Kate is an evocative tale of love and desire. The film recounts the sexual awakening of three siblings growing up in isolation, interwoven with the emotional journey of reconciliation between a father and son. Shot through with an ethereal beauty, the past is brought sharply into focus as guilt and recriminations finally give way to forgiveness.

Beautiful Kate boasts a cast of some of Australia's strongest acting talent with acclaimed leading actor Ben Mendelsohn (Knowing, The New World) starring as Ned, a writer returning home cross-country, to see his dying father Bruce played by Golden Globe nominated Bryan Brown (Australia, Dean Spanley, Cocktail, The Thorn Birds) and carer sister Sally played by Oscar nominated Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters, Muriel's Wedding). Having deserted the family home twenty years previously, Ned's return opens old wounds and awakens long buried secrets from the past.

Set in Australia's mesmerising and captivatingly beautiful outback, Beautiful Kate is in essence an intense and tragic love story about the sexual awakening of three siblings growing up in isolation. Told in the parallel narratives of past and present, returning to the family home with his much younger fiancée Toni, played by rising star Maeve Dermody (Black Water), Ned is forced to confront the realities surrounding the dramatic death of his twin sister Kate, played by newcomer Sophie Lowe, when she was 16. As memories from his youth come flooding back, it becomes apparent that their sibling intimacy had crossed over into a physical relationship, haunting him with the inescapable feelings of desire and guilt.

On the remaining days leading to Bruce's death, a newfound tenderness grows between father and son, as feelings of anger and bitterness soon turn to forgiveness and the past that has haunted the family is finally laid to rest.

At times devastating and at times dealing with subject matters hard to swallow, Rachel Ward's accomplished debut feature, cannot fail to get under your skin.

Rachel Ward - Director and Screenwriter

Rachel Ward has starred in numerous international films and television series of the last 20 years, including Against All Odds, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, After Dark, My Sweet, and The Umbrella Woman, to name a few. She has been the recipient of several international drama awards and nominations including a Golden Globe nomination for the mini series On The Beach.

In October 2007, the ABC series Rain Shadow, in which she stars, premiered. In 2000 Rachel put her wealth of experience and knowledge of the art of film making into writing and directing.

Beautiful Kate is Rachel Ward's feature film directorial debut. She has previously directed three award-winning short films: Blindman's Bluff, The Big House and Martha's New Coat.