South Solitary

Shirley Barrett’s movie, which opened the Sydney Film Festival before a packed 2000 plus audience, is a touching study of loneliness set on a meticulously recreated 1920s lighthouse island off the fiercely stormy southern Australian coast. Period details have been lovingly assembled — costumes, set dressings, dialogue, manners and the day-to-day routines and technicalities of lighthouse keeping in a bleak and hostile environment.