| The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce | |
| Directed by | Michael James Rowland |
| Written by | Michael James Rowland Nial Fulton |
| Produced by | Nial Fulton |
| Starring | Adrian Dunbar Ciarán McMenamin Dan Wyllie Don Hany Chris Haywood Bob Franklin |
| Cinematography | Martin McGrath |
| Edited by | Suresh Ayyar |
| Music by | Roger Mason |
| Distributed by | Hopscotch Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
| Countries | Australia Ireland |
| Language | English |
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce is a 2008 Australian-Irish film directed byMichael James Rowland starring Irish actorsAdrian Dunbar as Father Philip Conolly andCiarán McMenamin asbushrangerAlexander Pearce and an ensemble Australian cast, includingDan Wyllie,Don Hany andChris Haywood. The film was shot on location inTasmania andSydney between April and May 2008.
The film was nominated for the 2010Rose d'Or,[1][2] Best Drama at the 6th AnnualIrish Film and Television Awards,[3] Best Drama at the 2009Australian Film Institute Awards,[4] won Best Documentary at the 2009Inside Film Awards[5] and the director Michael James Rowland was nominated in the Best Director (Telemovie) category in the 2009 Australian Directors Guild Awards.[6]
The film follows the final days of Irish convict andbushrangerAlexander Pearce's life as he awaits execution. In 1824, the Britishpenal colony ofVan Diemen's Land is little more than a living hell. Chained to a wall in the darkness of a cell underHobart Gaol, Pearce is visited by Father Philip Conolly, the only Catholic priest in the fledgling colony and a fellow Irishman. Pearce wishes to relate to the priest the horrors he endured in the three months spent traversing the wilderness ofVan Diemen's Land. Conolly struggles to reconcile his desire to grant absolution to the convict with the story Pearce tells him. The title of the film comes from the interaction between Conolly and Pearce in the days before Pearce is executed.The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce is presented as a psychoanalyticalhistorical epic.
The underscored aspect of Pearce's crime and confessions is the murder of fellow escapees and his allegedcannibalism.[7]
The film details the convict's relinquishing psyche as he finds himself succumbing to the inevitability of his imminent execution. The circumstances and motives of Pearce's execution are put into question by Rowland.
Producer and co-writerNial Fulton began developingThe Last Confession of Alexander Pearce inIreland in 1998 andproduction began on the project in Australia in the summer of 2006. The film was commissioned and financed by theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation,RTÉ,BBC Northern Ireland,Screen Australia andScreen Tasmania.
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce was inspired by the true story of an escape from the infamousSarah Island penal settlement inMacquarie Harbour, Van Diemen's Land in 1822 by Irish convict and bushrangerAlexander Pearce and the subsequent confession he made to theHobart priest Phillip Conolly days before he was executed for the murder of fellow convict Thomas Cox.
Written by Michael James Rowland andNial Fulton, the script draws on all four confessions made byAlexander Pearce, but principally on the confessions he made to Commandant John Cuthbertson and the final confession made to thepriest Phillip Conolly. In many places the script uses the exact words written down in these confessions.
Shot over five weeks on location in Tasmania and Sydney in 2008, the film used locations aroundDerwent Bridge,Lake St Clair,Nelson Falls,the Huon Valley,Mount Wellington andCallan Park, a former asylum inRozelle. Many of the filming locations were selected as they were places Alexander Pearce may have passed through on his escape from Sarah Island.
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce received positive reviews internationally from film critics.Empire,The Sunday Times andThe Sydney Morning Herald all gave the film 4/5 stars.