THE ROOSTER

Directed by: Mark Leonard Winter
Genres: Drama, Mystery
Cast: Hugo Weaving (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix), Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent, Clickbait, Below)
Written by: Mark Leonard Winter
Produced by: Geraldine Hakewill, MahVeen Shahraki
Production Company: Don’t Crow! Pty Ltd, Thousand Mile Productions Pty Ltd
Co-Producers: David Kelly
Release year: 2024
Country: Australia
Language: English
Duration: 101 mins

Co-Financed by the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund

Synopsis:
Dan, an introverted police officer in a small country town, begins to unravel after he fails to follow police protocol when dealing with an incident involving his childhood friend Steve. The next day Steve’s body is found in the bush, buried in a shallow grave. Unfit to work and haunted by guilt, Dan spirals. When his pet rooster is killed by a fox, Dan lets go of the fragile tether he has on his sanity and retreats to camp out in the forest where Steve was found. After a chance encounter with an eccentric hermit living amongst the trees, Dan suspects that this man may have been the last person to see Steve alive. As Dan seeks answers, an unusual bond forms between the two men over games of table tennis. But all is not as it seems when Dan discovers that the hermit may have been responsible for a terrible act of violence.