The Plains

Following global festival acclaim in 2022, Melbourne's David Easteal's film The Plains landed on international cinema's premium 'best of' lists as the year drew to a close. Now the compelling film, set entirely during a Melbourne evening commute, is receiving 5 star reviews as it launches globally on MUBI.

Shot over the course of a year, and featuring Easteal and his lawyer colleague Andrew Rakowski, the film reinterprets their unlikely bond and real-life friendship that developed during a shared evening commute home to the suburbs of Melbourne.

Like the film itself, its reception has been quietly amounting to something extraordinary. It received rave reviews from the trades when in premiered in competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam before screening at more than 30 festivals around the world. It hit numerous 'best of 2022' lists, often the only Australian film alongside Baz Luhrmann's blockbuster Elvis to make the cut, and The 5 star The Guardian review called it 'an amazing work of art'.

The film launched on MUBI on April 6 internationally, and it has just launched on MUBI for Australian viewers this month.

The Plains, is the first feature film from Easteal, who received the Award for Emerging Australian Filmmaker at the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival whose previous shorts screened around the world.

Easteal appears in the film alongside Andrew, his real life colleague, as well as author Christos Tsiolkas and iconic former ABC presenter Jon Faine who feature in the film via the car radio, the film's connection to the outside world.

The Plains is now available to watch on MUBI: https://mubi.com/films/the-plains

SYNOPSIS
Every evening a man in his late 50s commutes home at the end of the working day in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. As the seasons pass in gentle rhythm we observe dramatic events of his life as well as mundane quotidian details, and learn more about the man, his inner conflicts and the relationships in his life – with his wife, his mother, deceased sister, and a younger co-worker whom he occasionally drives home. Within the microcosm of the car the film ultimately becomes a meditation on the passage of time, memory, work, and how love and the relationships in our life sustain us.