Chris Odgers

It's been a long time since Caine, Bronson, Angus and Wendell—aka ‘The Chain Breakers'—escaped a torturous Vietnamese POW camp. They now find themselves sharing a new prison, The Hogan Hills Retirement Home for Returned Veterans. Each of the boys has an unrealised dream they want to achieve, so they band together to devise a plan to escape their new hell. But the rules of engagement have changed. In fact, they can’t even remember what they were—and that’s half the problem.

After freeing a young Bedouin girl from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, an Australian adventuress, together with her devoted police detective friend, begins to unravel a decade-old mystery concerning priceless emeralds, an ancient curse and the disappearance of the girl's mother and massacre of her tribe.

The ABC telemovie event Dangerous Remedy tells the fascinating story of Dr Bertram Wainer. Living and working in Melbourne in the 1960s, Dr Wainer put his life at risk to expose police corruption in an effort to change the law on abortion and put an end to the illegal operations that were killing young women. It’s a truly inspiring story. Dr Wainer’s determination, even when his own life and that of his family’s was threatened, never faltered. He was living proof that one person can make a difference and change the status quo. With the support of Dr Wainer’s family, the filmmakers have endeavoured to capture the essence of his struggle to expose police corruption and change the law.

A tender story from Australia highlights the realistic ups and downs of an Australian family in the year following a parent's emergency medical procedure.

During one unusually hot weekend, four friends struggle after hearing some life-changing news.

A boy climbs an unsteady path to adulthood under difficult circumstances in this drama from Australia. Shaun (Kane McNay) is a teenager growing up in a run-down suburb of Melbourne. His father Sam (Brett Swain) is in prison, while his mother Jenny (Nell Feeney) is too lost in her problems with alcohol to provide much guidance for her children. Left to his own devices, Shaun commits petty theft, smokes pot, and deals drugs to his friends as they hang out at the nearby shopping mall. Shaun seems unable to reach out to anyone, not even his girlfriend (Lauren Hawker) or Darren (Brett Tucker), a social worker eager to help him. When his father is released from prison and brings his mistress to the "Welcome Home" party Jenny throws for him, Shaun comes to realize that if he is ever to resolve his problems, he will have to do it without the help of his family. Mallboy marked the feature film debut for writer/director Vincent Giarrusso.

Larceny, adultery, sabotage and treachery. Yes, just your typical Christmas with the Dredge family! Twelve-year-old Joey Dredge is in trouble again. Expelled for jumping off the school roof, he's haunted by his father's death and hates his mother's new boyfriend and his bullying son. Compounding his misery is the knowledge he has to spend Christmas with them at the family beach house. Things look grim until the unexpected arrival of great-grandfather Albert, fresh from a stint in prison. Forced to share the back shed with this swearing, farting and devious octogenarian, Joey's life changes. Between barbecuing the family dog, performing a self-burial and causing his intended step-father to consume a startling amount of hash, Joey learns a few life lessons from Albert, who despite his many vices may give Joey the strength to accept the past and embrace the future.

Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?