About
During the long years of World War II, Australia’s small farming communities paid a terrible price. In the rural towns of New South Wales, one family each week discovered that their son or husband or brother or father would not be coming home. In the throws of such grief, one seldom considers the man who delivers the news.
The Telegram Man takes us into the world of Bill Williams, the man who must deliver the worst kind of news and John Lewis the man who is destined to hear it. John Boyne’s poetic short story American Farm ’44 has been transported to the Australian outback allowing us to explore, through the micro-cosmos of Bill and John, how World War II forever changed the face of Australian culture.
The Telegram Man is a story that compels us to question our values, our fears and our compassion. It focuses on a time when we grew up as a nation, a time when we took responsibility and a time when we learnt the most painful lessons of loss whilst discovering and defining who we are.
Although we look through the lens of WWII the story of The Telegram Man remains as pertinent and beautiful in its compassion, sorrow and love as any moment in contemporary human experience.
The Telegram Man is a 15-minute short film set in 1942 country town NSW. The screenplay has been developed jointly by the film’s director/producer James F. Khehtie and writer Victoria Wharfe McIntyre based on a short story by John Boyne, the award-winning author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Ulysses Oliver and the team at Marshmallow have joined the production, which aims to shoot on 13th – 16th April 2010 for a release later in the year.
Veteran Australian actor Jack Thompson is attached to play the telegram man Bill Williams. Also attached is Australian actor Gary Sweet to play the role of John Lewis, the father who receives the telegram.
The film will be shot on location at The Australiana Pioneer Village in Wilberforce, NSW.
