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Return Home

1990 Australian film

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Return Home is a 1990 Australian drama film directed by Ray Argall. Argall won the AFI Award for Best Director in 1990 and Frankie J. Holden was nominated for Best Actor in a Lead Role.

01Plot

Noel McKenzie is a successful but divorced insurance broker in Melbourne. He returns briefly to hometown Adelaide where his brother Steve operates a traditional service station and workshop. Steve has a happy family life but is struggling to compete with more modern gas stations with convenience stores and self-service bowsers. Over time the brothers reconcile to each other’s life choices and recognise value in the family life they had in the suburb they grew up in.

02Cast

Joe Camilleri appears as a busking friend of Noel.

03Production

The film was funded by the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria with no private investment. It was shot in Adelaide over six weeks in February, March 1989 on 16mm but the AFC agreed to blow it up to 35mm.

Argall and the cast rehearsed for four weeks prior to filming. He said he worked on the script for seven years prior to the shoot.

04Box office

Return Home grossed $236,252 at the box office in Australia.

Watch videos about Return HomeExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Return Home, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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