South Solitary - In Distress, Require Assistance

Written and directed by Shirley Barrett.

The year is 1927, and the setting is South Solitary, a rugged and remote lighthouse island, directly in the path of the Roaring Forties. Meredith Appleton (Mirando Otto), 35, arrives with her uncle, George Wadsworth (Barry Otto), the replacement Head Keeper. She is a “chin up!” sort of girl, and she needs to be in these circumstances. The previous Head Keeper has shot himself. The light has a reputation for “going out” in the middle of the night. And to top it all off, they almost never see any actual ships – it seems, as a shipping route, going anywhere near South Solitary was long ago given up as a bad idea.

Meredith arrives on the island harboring a sad and shameful secret. Several years ago, she fell pregnant to a married man (her boss, in fact), and underwent a back yard abortion, which left her unable to ever have children. Having subsequently lost her secretarial job, she is now forced to rely upon the charity of her only surviving relative, her uncle – she cooks and cleans for him, in return for accommodation on whatever lighthouse island he is assigned.

Also stationed at South Solitary are Assistant Keeper Jack Fleet (New Zealand’s Marton Csokas) a troubled ex-soldier, and Assistant Keeper Harry Stanley (Rohan Nichol) with his wife Alma (Essie Davis) and their three young children.









While Wadsworth works on restoring order and discipline, Meredith tries to make friends. But Alma Stanley the only other woman on the island is wary and unfriendly; Alma’s nine year old daughter, Nettie, has a mounted collection of old scabs she keeps in a cigar box, and she looks after South Solitary’s homing pigeons (their only means of contact with the mainland in an emergency) by over-feeding them jam roly poly – thus they show a marked reluctance to fly anywhere. The only bright spot in the whole picture is Assistant Keeper Stanley, who seems good-natured and jokey and cheerfully insolent towards authority – and who promptly sets himself the task of seducing the new Head Keeper’s niece, pretty much as a way of passing the time.

However, the liaison between the pair begins a series of devastating events. One night they are interrupted in flagrante delicto by a knock on the door – Alma has sent Nettie over to ask if she may have her father back when Meredith is finished with him. The secret is out. Alma informs Wadsworth, Stanley is dismissed, and the Stanleys hurriedly depart the island.









Left alone with the unforthcoming Fleet we watch as, slowly and falteringly, a tender, cautious courtship ensues.

SOUTH SOLITARY was written and directed by Shirley Barrett (Love My Way, Love Serenade), produced by Marian Macgowan (Two Hands, Death Defying Acts) and stars Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings, Blessed), Barry Otto (Australia), Marton Csokas (Romulus, My Father, Shortland Street), Essie Davis (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and Rohan Nichol in his first Australian feature film.

‘This is a lovely film: droll, endearing and poignant, with an intoxicating sense of place that seeps into your pores.’ Nick Dent Sunday Mail

SOUTH SOLITARY releases theatrically from October 28th 2010

For more information visit www.southsolitarythemovie.com

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