Heatwave

2009 • 92 minutes

About this movie

Director Phillip Noyce's compelling follow-up to Newsfront, Heatwave is the infamous Australian political thriller inspired by the disappearance of Sydney journalist and anti development campaigner Juanita Neilson. An ambitious architect's inner city housing project has been compromised by a corrupt property developer (Chris Haywood -- "Shine," "Jindabyne"), who sends stand-over men in to evict demonstrating squatters. Social justice campaigner Kate Dean (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Judy Davis -- "A Passage to India," "Marie Antoinette") alerts the architect to a looming conspiracy when her friend, an activist and journalist, disappears and is presumed murdered. Noyce brilliantly evokes the oppressive mood of a stifling heat wave in inner Sydney in this compelling conspiracy thriller.