Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land (2009) is an Australian historical drama directed by Jonathan auf der Heide — watch online on iFILM. It follows eight convicts who broke out of Macquarie Harbour in 1822 and pushed into the Tasmanian wilderness.

Robert Greenhill, an ex-sailor, took the lead. The group expected endurance to be enough. It wasn't. Supplies ran out fast. The cold came. Men died. What had started as a push for freedom turned into something the survivors couldn't name yet — though they were already doing it. Jonathan auf der Heide keeps the camera close and the dialogue sparse, the right call for a story this grim.

The film reconstructs the case of Alexander Pearce, whose escape from Van Diemen's Land became one of the most disturbing accounts in colonial history. Stream Van Diemen's Land (2009) online on iFILM.