UNDER A BAMBOO SKY

Screening at Windsor Cinema until April, 29

All tickets $17

Due to popular demand, screenings are now extended into the ANZAC Day weekend for this groundbreaking new Australian feature documentary.

Using footage colourised for the first time, the film tells a previously untold story of a group of Australian POWs in WWII whose unbelievable journey has been brought to life using the oral testimonies of 63 soldiers, sailors and airmen, delivering a moving, intimate and revelatory first-hand account of their experience.

The film vividly brings to life their unbelievable trajectory from imprisonment at Changi, to build the Thai Burma Railway, then to Japan via shipwreck at sea, only to work in the coal mines and factories, before then witnessing the atomic fallout at Nagasaki.

An opportunity for collective Remembrance and learning, the screenings provide a chance to see the film at its most immersive, a moving experience for many.

Said one direct descendant, “Wow…very impressive. There was much I had heard before, but to experience it in the context of a big-screen documentary, it really hit home. Some of it was genuinely new to me and helped provide a fuller picture of what the POWs, and Dad went through. Well done to all involved — from concept to final cut. I believe those who lived through those atrocious experiences would be very pleased to have their story told so honestly and with such respect.”

Says director Serge Ou “We set out to make Under a Bamboo Sky a holistic and immersive experience for audiences to hear, see and feel these men’s experiences."

A tale of human connection, hope and resilience in the face of great tragedy, Under a Bamboo Sky uses new technology to bring to life the unbelievable story of Australian soldiers held prisoner by the Japanese in WWII.

Using their own words, their own voices, Under a Bamboo Sky weaves the recollections (oral testimony) of more than 60 former POWs together with newly colourised archival material and new location footage to deliver a moving, intimate and revelatory first-hand account of their experience.

Captured during the Japanese offensive and imprisoned in Singapore’s Changi Barracks, the film follows the years-long journey of these soldiers through four countries: forced into slave labour building the Thai Burma Railway, shipwrecked at sea, and sent into factories and down coal mines in Japan. After bearing witness to some of WWII’s most history-defining events, they tell of returning home to families, wives and sweethearts after years away, and of the price they paid for the trauma they endured.

Shining through the horrors of war is the spirit of these men who, remarkably, demonstrate an inspiring human capacity to find beauty in their surroundings and hold onto hope in the worst of circumstances. Under A Bamboo Sky is their story.