Synopsis

Daniel and his girlfriend are dancers at the peak of their careers. During a break in rehearsals, Daniel goes out to buy cigarettes and doesn't return, for 12 days. Mysteriously abducted and then thrown back into the world, Daniel returns home a broken man. Unable to confide in Bridget or his beloved dance teacher Isabel, he packs his bags and flees. Daniel embarks on a search to discover his perpetrators' identities. With a few tantalising physical clues to go by, his journey turns into a sexual odyssey, a journey into his lost self fuelled by the memory of his bizarre imprisonment. Isabel enlists the help of her former husband Detective Olsen to bring Daniel back which produces a course of action that is both devastating and revelatory.

What The Critics Say

"The film as a whole is a meditation not just on violence done to the self but on the victim’s after-journey. This is not for the faint hearted but is an interesting adaptation of a stays-in-the-mind novel." Julian Wood FILMINK "I've never seen a film like this before... provocative... tantalising... totally fascinating." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES. "Courageous...daring." Andiee Paviour WHO WEEKLY "A landmark of Australian cinema." Jill Singer HERALD SUN. "Provocative, explicit and confronting, The Book of Revelation is a bit like an erotic dream, in which the mysteries of dance merge with violent sex with strangers as we search for the inner soul. Director Ana Kokkinos teams with screen writer Andrew Bovell to deliver red-hot intensity on screen. Visually breathtaking, the direction is assured, albeit cohesion is missing between the film's different sections." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE

"Kokkinos's last film, Head On (another adaptation of a novel), was a visceral, vital, in-your-face exploration of male sexuality.Book Of Revelation's arms-length artiness is less arresting, although the effect is mitigated by the relaxed physicality of the scenes involving Colin Friel's detective and Greta Scacchi's dance doyenne. With these actors we can relax, safe in seasoned hands." Vicky Roach DAILY TELEGRAPH A bold attempt to go where no woman has gone before that ultimately fails to deliver. "Powerful and impressive." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES. "It remains, from first to last, compelling and involving." Phillipa Hawker THE AGE. "Brilliant...Exciting...Heartrending...stands at the forefront of new Australian films." Tom Ryan THE SUNDAY AGE "This flick is one part pretentious, plodding drama and one part intriguing, erotic mystery as the hauntingly graphic and confronting middle sequence is book ended by scenes of sparse dialogue and atmospherics." Gavin Bond INFILM

The Inside Story When British author Rupert Thomson's "The Book Of Revelation" was first published he was inundated with film offers. The New York Times Book Review hailed it as "a premise made terrifyingly real by a hugely talented writer". Director Ana Kokkinos first read the Thomson's novel "The Book of Revelation" not long after it was published in 1999. She was immediately impressed. "My first response was that it was such a wild idea and a real page-turner," she said. Kokkinos too saw a film in his novel. Lucky for her, Thomson had seen her film "Head On". After a four-page letter, several phone conversations and a meeting with the author at an Australian writers'festival, he was convinced. Kokkinos and Producer Al Clark would be safe in their hands. "He could see in us an absolute determination to make the film rather than, as had become customary for him, to go into development forever," Clark recalls. There was good reason for Thomson to be worried about who do the adaptation of his novel. This would be the first time one of his works would be made into a film. Kokkinos's approach to the film adaptation "was not to reduce its complexity to a simple set of events. Like all contemporary novels it's very much about ideas. What I didn't want to do was create a film that would deny those ideas," she said. The Director then approached award winning writer Andrew Bovell. His immediate thought was, "This is likely to stir strong reactions, particularly towards the lead character. It's not simply a question of whose side are you on." What also hooked Bovell was this simple premiss, a man goes out to buy his girlfriend a packet of cigarettes and never comes back. He like many would immemdiately ask "Why?". "The Book of Revelation is a study of masculinity out of control, but at the same time it's a mystery. And that, for me, was fascinating," says Bovell. For those who may not be familiar with Thomson's novel, it is set in Amsterdam. Shooting the film in Amsterdam would create a few problems for the Australian production team. The cost of shooting overseas would mean an impost on the financing of the film. Melbourne was the ideal location. "I find Melbourne very beautiful aesthetically and it has a level of sophistication that is important to the film," Kokkinos notes. Producer Al Clark agreed adding, "Melbourne, in its slightly raffish and bohemian self image, plus its abundance of water, made it a very good counterpart for Amsterdam." Author Rupert Thomson was initially reluctant about the switch. He gave the go-ahead after Kokkinos "convinced him the setting in Melbourne would have as much particularity as the original in Amsterdam. He then started to get excited about the idea when he realised both cities have trams! Now they could start casting the actors and actresses for the roles. A descision was made early that the lead role Of Daniel would be played by an actor and not, a dancer. And it had to be an actor who could dance! The role went to Tom Long, who Kokkinos says, "has a body you believe and an interesting male/female thing going on which many dancers have." So what was Long's first reaction when he read the script co-written by Kokkinos and Bovell? "I wanted at times to throw it across the room," Long remembers, adding, "Not because it was bad but because it provoked such strong feelings in me. But that's also the reason I enjoyed it so much." The role of choreographer Isabel was expanded in the screenplay and went to EMMY award winning actress Greta Scacchi, who recently appeared with Kevin Spacey in "Beyond The Sea". Scacchi already had a dance connection. Her mother was a professional dancer who then went on to teach dance throughout Scacchi's childhood. "It was wonderful preparation for being an actor to have a mother who's very disciplined. Dance was not just my fitness but a very spiritual part of my life," says the actress. Isabel's ex-husband Olsen is played by Colin Friels. Friels who had previously worked with Scacchi on the ABC mini-series "The Farm" was impressed with the script. "It was a fascinating script and I couldn't put it down," he says. But the director was a little apprehensive. You see Kokkinos likes to rehearse thoroughly. On the other hand, when it comes to film, Friels has a famed dislike of doing so for films. She needn't have worried because like the true and respected professional he is, Friels dutifully did his bit. "Actually, we got on like a house on fire", says Kokkinos. "Colin absolutely captured the sense of wisdom and patience that was so intrinsic to the character. He's also a lot of fun on set." And before you ask the question, no, there wasn't an aboriginal character in the original Rupert Thomson novel. In fact the role of Julie was reconfigured during the novel's adaptation to screen. That role went to the AFI award winning actress Deborah Mailman who is a standout in "The Book Of Revelation". "In an Australian context her aboriginality became very important for me and I wrote the role with Deborah in mind," Kokkinos explained. "My character allows Daniel to start opening up again and learn to trust women", says Mailman. "For that reason alone it was quite a beautiful character to play." Actress Anna Torv had her work cut out for her when Ana Kokkinos cast her in the role of Bridget and as one of the women who abduct and sexualy abuse Daniel. "I cast Anna Torv as one of the women because I sensed she could bring something essential to the role. I knew she would dig below the surface and give me something completely fresh, without cliché. Power and authority coming from deep within. She can convey so much in a look," says the director. Another aspect of the film was to craete a feeling of authenticity with the dance content. At the invitation of director Ana Kokkinos, the renowned Australian and internationally acclaimed choreographer Meryl Tankard was brought into the creative team. Meryl and her associates would spend three months training Tom Long and Anna Torv. At the end of that period Tankard was convinced Long and Torv had the credibility to appear on screen as dancers. "Tom is a wonderful, open spirit and really believes in what he's doing," says Tankard. "So if I gave him an action or emotion to work with, he so believed it from the inside that it worked. Over the months it was wonderful to see him and his body change." As for Anna Torv, well here's a little bit of trivia. Anna did all her own stunts. Even Tankard was surprised at how well she took to the harness work that was choreographed. "I hate films where there are doubles, but Anna did it all; she took to it straight away. Amazing," she said. And here's another little juicy bit of trivia. One week before completion, Tom Long broke his ankle in a freak accident that occurred during a take. With seven weeks of shooting at fourty two locations around Melbourne under their belt, the team would have to wait four months for Long's ankle to fully heal before the eighth and final week's shoot took place. Finally here's something you won't hear bandied about. With dance and acting rehearsals taking place alongside each other the creativity blossomed, resulting in an increased dance content in the film. This drew and observation from producer Al Clark (the author of two books: "Raymond Chandler in Hollywood" and "The Lavender Bus") who exclaimed, "this film that had a few dance sequences threatened at one point to become a dance movie!" About The Author Born on the south coast of England in 1955, Rupert Thomson was educated at Christ’s Hospital School. At the age of seventeen he won a scholarship to Cambridge University where he studied Medieval History and Political Thought. In his twenties, he spent four years working as a copywriter in London, but in 1982 he moved to Italy where he started work on a novel. Dreams of Leaving was published in 1987, and was hailed in the Times as ‘extraordinarily elegant, evocative and funny’, while the New Statesman wrote: ‘When someone writes as well as Thomson does, it makes you wonder why other people bother.’ Since then he has written six more highly acclaimed novels: "The Five Gates of Hell" (1991), "Air and Fire" (1993), "The Insult" (1996), "Soft "(1998), "The Book of Revelation" (1999) and "Divided Kingdom" (2005). The San Francisco Chronicle has described him as a 'twisted British fabulist'. Rupert Thomson's books have been shortlisted for various awards including the Writer's Guild Fiction Prize for Air and Fire and the Guardian Prize for fiction. Thomson has lived all over the world, including Sydney, and currently resides in Barcelona. About The Book

A shocking, fascinating novel by the author of "The Insult" and "Divided Kingdom". On a bright spring day in Amsterdam a man goes out to buy a packet of cigarettes. He is a dancer, charismatic, talented and physically beautiful. What happens next takes him completely by surprise and marks him forever. He awakens to find that he has been abducted by three hooded strangers and subsequently imprisoned in a mysterious white room, which will have consequences that are both poignant and highly disturbing. ISBN: 9780747584759. The film tie-in is avalable for the RRP of $22.95 (Australia) and $27.99 (New Zealand) and is distributed by ALLEN & UNWIN. Available in all good retail book stores.

The Verdict "Director Ana Kokkinos has done it again with this superb and very entertaining film adaptation of author Rupert Thomson's novel "The Book Of Revelation". If you're easily offended then consider your options before taking this film in, after all it is R18+ rated. The cast is solid and features faces familiar to most of us. Tom Long is convincing as Daniel and it's good to see Debra Mailman on the big screen again. Well worth a look at although some may find certain aspects of "The Book Of Revelation" a little confronting. Rates 3 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "THE BOOK OF REVELATION" stars .......
EMMY Award winner Greta Scacchi ["Looking for Alibrandi", "Beyond The Sea" and "The Handyman"]; AFI & IF Award winner Colin Friels ["The Man Who Sued God", "Black and White", "Tom White" and "Solo"]; AFI Award winner Deborah Mailman ["Radiance", "The Monkey's Mask" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence"]; Tamara Searle ["The Usherette"] Anna Torv ["Travelling Light" & TV'S "Young Lions", "McLeod's Daughters" and "The Secret Life of Us"] and Tom Long ["Doing Time for Patsy Cline", "Two Hands", "Risk" and "The Dish"] as Daniel.
"THE BOOK OF REVELATION" was .......
directed by AFI Award winner Ana Kokkinos ["Only The Brave", "Head On" and "The Original Mermaid"]; screenplay by AWGIE, AFI and London Critics'Circle Film Award winner Andrew Bovell ["Strictly Ballroom", "Head On" and "Lantana"] and Ana Kokkinos ["Only The Brave", "Head On" and "The Original Mermaid"]; edited by AFI Award winner Martin Connor ["Looking for Alibrandi", "Angst", "The Hard Word" and "Thunderstruck"]; cinematography by Tristan Milani ["The Boys", "The Bank" and "Three Dollars"]; original music by TWO time AFI Award winner and APRA Award winner Cezary Skubiszewski ["Two Hands", "La Spagnola" and "The Rage In Placid Lake"] produced by Al Clark ["Chopper", "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and "Thunderstruck"]. Run Time 117 minutes Rated R18+ [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Wildheart - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved