GERALDINE HAKEWILL & MARK LEONARD WINTER

In the winter of 2019 the lights dimmed for me,” writes award-winning actor turned filmmaker Mark Leonard Winter.

“Dealing with the fall out of some devastating personal events and finding myself isolated at my house in the country, I suddenly couldn’t see a place for myself in this world…This personal nightmare feels like a distant memory now but many in my circle have not been so fortunate.”

Mark synthesised these experiences into ideas that would spark his debut film, The Rooster. Over the phone, his partner and producer of the film Geraldine Hakewill, discussed the origins of the screenplay.

She says, “Mark had this period of time where I was working in Sydney, and he was at our place in Glenlyon on his own, and through that isolation, this story kind of came to be.” From the outset, Mark wanted to explore men’s mental health through a new lens, one that the audience might
even find entertaining.

“He wanted to grapple with the absurdity of that situation, that kind of meaninglessness that you find yourself in and also depict a different kind of masculinity than I think we're used to seeing in our stories.”

The Rooster tells the story of a small-town cop who discovers a friend who has died in the bush, his body buried in a shallow grave.

“He starts to spiral as he sort of grapples with a guilty feeling around the circumstances of his friend's death. He had some time off work and he went into the bush and went camping where his friend was found. He comes across a hermit living in the forest, played by Hugo Weaving, so this man was the last person to see his friend alive,” explains Geraldine.

“So the cop gently tries to get information from this guy. They start playing table tennis together in the forest. And over these games of table tennis, they start to open up to each other about their demons,” says Geraldine. “I feel that a lot of issues that we have in the world around masculinity stem from a collective, conscious or unconscious, desire for men to not be connected to their vulnerability.”

The Rooster is a timely story about healing, spiritual resurrection and transformation - a humane portrait of masculinity set against the wild backdrop of the Daylesford, Macedon region.

“It’s a love letter to the area,” adds Geraldine. “We half-wrote it for specific locations around our property and neighbouring properties throughout Glenlyon and Daylesford. A lot of locals were extras in the film. Wombat Sate Forest is a huge part of the fabric story. It's really a love letter to that beautiful place and those trees because really, we both feel a deep connection to this area and the beauty and the darkness and the spirituality of it.

In February, The Rooster will receive a limited release in cinemas across Australia before being broadcast on a streaming platform.

Since this article was written, Director Mark Leonard Winter won the Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Debut Feature Film.

The film's cinematographer Craig Barden also won the Australian Cinematographers Society Gold Award for his work on the film.

It has also been announced that The Rooster has been nominated for four AACTA Awards (Australia's Oscar equivalent) - Best Indie Feature, Best Actor for Phoenix Raei, Best Supporting Actor for Hugo Weaving and Best Costume Design for Ellen Stanistreet.

STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL PHOTOS BY SARAH ENTICKNAP

Geraldine Hakewill & Mark Leonard Winter
@theroosterfilm