TV Movie Guide: 5 – 11 April

• Audio Description (AD) available for White Boy Rick, Any Given Sunday, Watership Down, The Descent, The Descent Part 2, Pet Sematary, The Father and Rabbit-Proof Fence
• Closed Captions (CC) available for Any Given Sunday, The Father and Rabbit-Proof Fence

 

WEDNESDAY 5 APRIL

The Operative
9:30pm, SBS VICELAND

MA15+
USA, 2019
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Language: English, Hebrew, Persian
Director: Yuval Adler
Starring: Diane Kruger, Martin Freeman, Cas Anvar, Werner Daehn, Liron Levo
What’s it about?
Mossad recruits a woman (Kruger) to become an agent and sends her to Tehran on an undercover mission. When her missions become more dangerous, she decides to quit, forcing her boss to find her before she becomes a threat to Israel.

White Boy Rick
11:40pm

M, AD
USA, 2018
Genre: Crime, Drama
Language: English
Director: Yann Demange
Starring: Richie Merritt, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie
What’s it about?
Based on the moving, true story of a blue-collar father (McConaughey) and his teenage son, Rick Wershe Jr. (Merritt), who became an undercover police informant and later a drug dealer, before he was abandoned by his handlers and sentenced to life in prison. Directed by Yann Demage (’71).

 

THURSDAY 6 APRIL

Any Given Sunday
9:30pm, NITV

MA15+, AD, CC
USA, 1999
Genre: Drama, Sport
Language: English
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Al Pacino, LL Cool J, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, James Woods, Dennis Quaid
What’s it about?
A veteran football coach (Pacino) struggles to hold his team together in the face of personal and professional crises, calling up an erratic quarterback (Foxx) in an attempt to save the season and prevent the owner (Diaz) from firing him. Directed by Oliver Stone (JFK, Platoon, Natural Born Killers).

 

FRIDAY 7 APRIL

Watership Down
7:30pm, NITV (repeats Saturday 8 April, 10:00am)

PG, AD
USA, 1978
Genre: Animated
Language: English
Director: Martin Rosen
Starring (voice cast): John Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson
What’s it about?
The timeless animated classic based on the best-selling novel by Richard Adams. Threatened with destruction of their warren, the rabbits are forced to leave their idyllic home in search of a new one. Features Art Garfunkel’s hit song “Bright Eyes”.

 

SATURDAY 8 APRIL

White Lion
11:40am, NITV

PG
South Africa, 2010
Genre: Drama, Family
Language: English, Italian
Director: Michael Swan
Starring: Jamie Bartlett, John Kani, Thabo Malema, AJ Van der Merwe, Brendan Grealy
What’s it about?
According to the legend of the Shangaan, white lions are the messengers of the gods, but it has been years since one has been seen in their remote African valley. When a white lion is miraculously born into that valley, a young Shangaan named Gisani, finds himself destined to protect this rare and magnificent creature at all costs. This young lion, whom will be known as Letsatsi, is cast from his pride and forced to embark upon a perilous journey of survival.

The Good, The Bad, The Hungry
4:50pm, SBS VICELAND

PG
USA, 2019
Genre: Documentary
Language: English, Japanese
Director: Nicole Lucas Haimes
What’s it about?
The eye-opening and mouth-watering tale of Takeru Kobayashi, the native of Nagano, Japan, who won the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest six consecutive times, and Joey Chestnut, the American who emerged to dethrone the Japanese legend in 2007 and become the face of the sport.

Pet Sematary
9:30pm, SBS VICELAND

MA15+, AD
US, 1989
Genre: Drama, Horror
Language: English
Director: Mary Lambert
Starring: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, Brad Greenquist
What’s it about?
Dr. Louis Creed’s (Midkiff) family moves into the country house of their dreams and discover a pet cemetery at the back of their property. The cursed burial ground deep in the woods brings the dead back to life – with “minor” problems. At first, only the family’s cat makes the return trip, but an accident forces a heartbroken father to contemplate the unthinkable. Based on the novel by Stephen King.

The Father
12:15am, SBS

M, AD, CC
France, UK, USA, 2020
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Florian Zeller
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Olivia Williams, Imogen Poots
What’s it about?
A man (Hopkins, in an Oscar-winning performance) refuses all assistance from his daughter (Colman) as he ages. While he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

 

SUNDAY 9 APRIL

Rabbit-Proof Fence
10:20pm, NITV (repeats Sunday 10 April, 11:50am)

PG, AD, CC
Australia, 2002
Genre: History, Adventure
Language: Walmajarri, English
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, Kenneth Branagh, Deborah Mailman
What’s it about?
Based on the true story of three young Aboriginal girls, Molly (Sampi) and Daisy (Sansbury) and their cousin, Gracie (Monaghan), who in 1931, were forcibly removed from their mothers and their home in Jigalong and moved over fifteen hundred miles away, as a part of official ‘White Australia’ Government policy. Molly leads her younger sister and cousin on a brave escape and in a bid to find their way home, following, on foot, the rabbit-proof fence that cuts across the Gibson Desert and towards Jigalong.

 

MONDAY 10 APRIL

George Michael: Portrait of an Artist
7:30pm, SBS

M
UK, 2022
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Director: Simon Napier-Bell
What’s it about?
The definitive George Michael documentary film featuring candid interviews from Stevie Wonder, Stephen Fry and many others allowing us to hear from those who worked, created, interacted and loved George and let them tell their story. The film packs an emotional punch – exposing, honestly and respectfully, the man who was George Michael. Reminding us of his talent, his suffering and at what cost it took to be the truly exceptional artist, genius, and philanthropist he was.

Chicken People
9:30pm, NITV

PG
USA, 2016
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Director: Nicole Lucas Haimes
What’s it about?
The trials and tribulations of those who breed exotic birds in the world of competitive poultry; three remarkably rich and diverse personalities who come together to compete in their shared passion to raise the perfect chicken. The film follows the struggles and triumphs of these characters, along with a wide array of competitors-both human and chicken-from the Ohio National Poultry Show, considered the Westminster of Chickens, to the Dixie Classic in Tennessee.

 

TUESDAY 11 APRIL

Lycett and Wallis
11:15pm, NITV

PG
Australia, 2022
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Director: Chit Chat von Loopin Stab
What’s it about?
Convict artist Joseph Lycett and his patron Newcastle Commandant Captain James Wallis started an art revolution that resulted in the preservation of vast amounts of Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge.