01
The Getting of Wisdom
Why this pick
Another finely observed Australian period coming-of-age drama, following a bright girl negotiating the rules, humiliations and moral pressures of an austere boarding school.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1976 1h 47m AUS
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Devil's Playground
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Devil's Playground, try these.
01
02
Au Revoir les Enfants
Why this pick
Its Catholic boarding-school world is rendered through a child’s watchful perspective, with restrained detail, growing awareness and unease gradually intruding on everyday rituals.
03
The Year My Voice Broke
Why this pick
A quietly textured Australian adolescence story with period specificity, sexual awakening and painful shifts in friendship, told with the same patient, compassionate attention to young people.
04
The Quiet Girl
Why this pick
For its spare, intimate child’s-eye storytelling: small gestures, silence and a strict rural social world carry the emotional weight without melodrama.
05
Kes
Why this pick
A naturalistic, unsentimental portrait of a boy hemmed in by school and adult authority, yet finding a private source of grace and self-definition.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
In August 1953, the 13-year-old Tom Allen attends a Catholic juniorate in Melbourne, Australia. Students and Brothers face individual challenges of faith and self-restraint.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Arthur Dignam
Brother Francine
Nick Tate
Brother Victor
Charles McCallum
Brother Sebastian
John Frawley
Brother Celian
Simon Burke
Tom Allen