Wish You Were Here

A tense and suspenseful thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a man whilst on holiday in Cambodia.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.


Image gallery

  • Director Kieran Darcy-Smith
  • Producer Angie Fielder
  • Screenwriter Kieran Darcy-Smith, Felicity Price
  • With Joel Edgerton, Teresa Palmer, Felicity Price
  • Australia 2012
  • 93 mins
  • Sales LevelK

Dave and Alice, a happily married couple, take an impromptu holiday to Cambodia with Alice’s sister Steph and her charming new boyfriend Jeremy. But their pacific idyll is shattered one evening when Jeremy mysteriously disappears, leaving no hints as to his whereabouts. Back home and desperate to understand what happened to Jeremy, the three must confront some dark and disturbing truths, exposing secrets that may solve the mystery, but will change their lives forever. As much a tense and accomplished thriller as it is a complex family drama, the film’s non-linear structure builds the intrigue, slyly offering clues as to what took place during that fateful trip. The cast are uniformly excellent, particularly Joel Edgerton, who is outstanding as the guilt-ridden Dave, while director Kieran Darcy-Smith’s assured handling of the suspense is complemented by a visual style that lends a sweeping beauty to this effectively forbidding tale.
Michael Blyth

Director statement

For years I have been fascinated by the idea of unexplained disappearance. The extraordinary vacuum opened up for those left behind. The unknown. The possibilities. What if I were to fake my own death? Or I’m held prisoner in a basement for 30 years? Perhaps simply snuffed to dust in an instant by some catastrophe, natural or otherwise. And the world at home carries on... I’m a grainy photograph... What have I left behind me? And the notion of truth... I guess I’ve always been a romantic – with essentially simplistic, almost naïve notions of truth and honesty. But have I always upheld these ideals? Do I have a threshold? Wish You Were Here has become my opportunity to step into the shoes of others – but always with a clear mirror held up to myself. As writers, Felicity and I have plumbed our characters for credibility and humanity. Our intention has always been that our audience walks away from the film with a feeling of – ‘My God. That could so easily have been you or me...’ The film opens with colour, energy and music; life, love, travel, smiles, sunshine and abandon. It kicks us immediately into a world we want to be in, and with people we like. People just like us. But there’s a problem. Something has happened... And we stay with these people as they navigate a very complicated crisis... The narrative plays out from shifting points of view as we track concurrently the story of a likeable young family under pressure, a marriage tested, a disappearance, one man’s suppression of the truth, the repercussions of his decision and the necessity, for everyone, for the truth to come out into the open. And so ‘truth’ (as well as being our key theme) has become a directorial by-word. My absolute priority, from script to screen, is truth. Truth of performance, of character, and of story.

Contemporary Danish cinema has been of significant influence in terms of developing the screenplay and an approach to performance. Susanne Bier (After the Wedding; Brothers), Thomas Vinterberg (Festen) and Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves; Dancer in the Dark) in particular. These filmmakers share an emphasis on relatable, contemporary, ordinary human beings in crisis, distinguished by performances captured in an extremely realistic and accessible way. There’s a keen awareness of story momentum and audience engagement, with a focus on character and story. The technical and aesthetic considerations have been employed so as not to draw attention to themselves but rather to faithfully service the capturing of the performances in as real, unaffected and accessible a way as possible. Eye-level, fly-on-the- wall, visceral human stuff. […] Darren Aronofsky, when discussing The Wrestler, talks of approaching his drama as a ‘pro-active documentary’ (as opposed to actual vérité documentary, which is entirely reactive). It’s an approach to blocking, coverage and lighting that allows for spontaneity and freedom in performance. Looks and feels real, but in reality very carefully prepped and rehearsed. Wherever possible we shot on longer lenses, framing for depth. Dirty, almost voyeuristic framings, with as little depth of field as the format would allow. Intimate over-shoulder set-ups on close-ups so that we’re right in the heads of these people. For the more intense or active scenes we shot on wider lenses, keeping things mobile, working around the actors’ spontaneity. We used a small and flexible crew, with few people actually on set at any time. The focus throughout was to provide an open, intimate and creative environment so as to best capture truth and spontaneity as it played out. By the end of the film we should feel genuine sympathy for - and empathy towards - all of the major characters no matter how flawed their choices or actions. With regard to design: real real real. Lived in, textured, warm and relatable. Nothing deliberate. Plenty of colour. The idea was to present an unaffected world with natural sunlight and natural colours. Again, shooting whenever possible with available light/practicals. Sun flare and other ‘noise’ was encouraged. A busy, interesting frame. Wardrobe wasn’t ironed to within an inch of its life. There were no builds, no sets or studio. The stylistic approach has been very deliberately developed so as to be symbiotic with a low budget production methodology. The ideas here were very carefully considered as part of a practical approach to ensure the film stands out as fresh, authentic, original, gripping and – ultimately – emotionally moving.
Kieran Darcy-Smith

Director biography

Active both in front of and behind the camera since graduating from drama school in Sydney in 1995, he has written, directed and starred in a number of internationally acclaimed short films and music videos. His second short film, Bloodlock, was nominated for an AFI Award, and other shorts The Island and Loaded have garnered genuine international recognition. As an actor Kieran’s feature film roles include The Square, September, The Cave, Two Hands and The Reef. His so-far unrealised screenplays have attracted the Inside Film Award for Best Unproduced Screenplay for Memorial Day and the Australian Writer’s Guild Mentorship Award for Little Sky Cambodia; while Wish You Were Here was selected for the prestigious Aurora Script Development Program, and now emerges as his feature film debut. He is also a founding member of Blue-Tongue Films, an independent collective of writer/directors.

Filmography

1996 Loaded [s]
1998 Bloodlock [s]
2000 The Island [s]
2012 Wish You Were Here