Winner of the New Visions Award at the 2009 Sitges International Film Festival and the Best International Feature Award at the 2009 Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden, Van Diemen's Land, the debut feature from writer-director Jonathan auf der Heide, tells the grisly true story of Australia's most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce, and his infamous escape into the beautiful yet brutal island of the title, which is known today as Tasmania.

An expanded, feature-length version of Jonathan auf der Heide's earlier short, Hell's Gates, based on Pearce's confessions, Van Diemen's Land was co-written by the film's star, Oscar Redding (The Secret Life Of Us), and co-stars Arthur Angel (Ghost Rider), Paul Ashcroft (Salem's Lot), Mark Leonard Winter (Balibo) and Torquil Neilson (The Secret Life Of Us).

A point of no return for convicts banished from their homeland for repeated crimes, Van Diemen's Land was a feared and dreaded penal settlement situated in the most remote and unexplored region of the British Empire. The entrance to its station of secondary punishment, Macquarie Harbour, was named 'Hell's Gates' by its prisoners, with the legend "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" posted on a sign at the harbour's mouth as a warning to all the souls sent there. In 1822, eight convicts escaped Macquarie Harbour in a fateful bid for freedom. Led by ex-sailor and experienced navigator Robert Greenhill, this band of Irish, English and Scottish thieves was immediately hurled into chaos as their plans to escape the island by boat failed and they were thrust into the heart of a harsh and unforgiving terrain. With little in the way of food or equipment, the men struggled to survive in the barren land. As their limited supplies began to run out, exhaustion and hunger combined to drive the men to madness, leading them to contemplate the unthinkable.

A dark, brooding and densely atmospheric tale reflecting Australia's true colonial heritage, Van Diemen's Land is an assured and impressive debut feature by a young new director who will almost certainly prove to be a name to watch in future.

Van Diemen's Land (cert. 15) will be released on DVD by High Fliers Films on 24th May 2010 at the RRP of £12.99. No extras have been listed.

Regular readers may recall that Pearce's story was also the inspiration for the 2008 film Dying Breed, directed by Jody Dwyer abd starring Nathan Phillips and Leigh Whannell.