The Village Roadshow Prize for Screen Writing: Winner 2003

Judges report

Alexandra's Project by Rolf de Heer (Fandango Australia/Vertigo Productions)

Rolf de Heer's Alexandra's Project is a brooding, minimalist thriller, an uncompromising account of a marriage gone wrong. There is a sense of ever-present danger. Dramatic shifts occur, each reveal charting a new and ever darker step in the dangerous psychological game being played by Alexandra, the wife in this dysfunctional marriage.

With its use of closed-circuit video, the claustrophobic environment of the house and its home security devices suddenly turned inwards to prevent the occupant from escaping, rather than intruders from breaking in, the script plays with the idea of reversals. Alexandra felt that Steve had trapped her with his predatory sexual behaviour and control of their money. She now lays a trap for him in the home where she was trapped. The game she plays with Steve is the game the filmmaker is playing with the audience.

In this very adult tale, we are being toyed with, our voyeurism piqued and mocked in the same way as Steve's. This is a screenplay which reveals a writer in full command of the medium.