The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
| The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce | |
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Promotional poster for The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce
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| Directed by | Michael James Rowland |
| Produced by | Nial Fulton |
| Written by | Michael James Rowland Nial Fulton |
| Starring |
Adrian Dunbar Ciarán McMenamin Dan Wyllie Don Hany Chris Haywood Bob Franklin |
| Music by | Roger Mason |
| Cinematography | Martin McGrath |
| Edited by | Suresh Ayyar |
| Distributed by | Hopscotch Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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60 minutes |
| Country | Australia Ireland |
| Language | English |
The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce is a 2008 Australian film directed by Michael James Rowland starring Irish actors Adrian Dunbar as Philip Conolly and Ciarán McMenamin as Alexander Pearce. The film was shot on location in Tasmania and Sydney between April and May 2008.
The film was nominated for the 2010 Rose d'Or, Best Drama at the 6th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards, Best Drama at the 2009 Australian Film Institute Awards, won Best Documentary at the 2009 Inside Film Awards and the director Michael James Rowland was nominated in the Best Director (Telemovie) category in the 2009 Australian Directors Guild Awards.
The film follows the final days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce's life as he awaits execution. In 1824 the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land is little more than a living hell. Chained to a wall in the darkness of a cell under Hobart Gaol, Pearce is visited by Father Philip Conolly, the parish priest of the fledgling colony and a fellow Irishman. Pearce wishes to tell the priest his recollection of the horrors he endured in the three months spent traversing the brutal wilderness of Van Diemen's Land. Conolly struggles to reconcile his desire to grant absolution to the convict with the story Pearce tells him. The title of the film comes from the remarkable interaction between Philip Conolly and Alexander Pearce days before Pearce is executed. The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce is presented as a psychoanalytical historical epic.
The film details the convict's relinquishing psyche as he finds himself succumbing to the inevitability of his imminent execution. For much of the film, the complex relationship between Pearce and Conolly is examined. The circumstances and motives of Pearce's execution are, too, put into question by Rowland.
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