Cruel Hands

Australian Premiere

“I left the theater shaken but in awe. A raw, compelling film that shows both the terror and the resilience of survival. Cruel Hands isn’t easy to watch, but it’s unforgettable.” – True View Reviews

Croatian-Australian director Al Kalyk bolts out of the gates with this striking debut feature that replicates the sensation of being permanently surveilled.

Through doorways and smeared glass, we watch Maria and her young son Dai flee from their violent and abusive husband and father, Jason, taking shelter in an abandoned farmhouse deep in bushfire country. Isolated from emergency services, and with Jason mercilessly hunting them through the smoke-choked forest, Maria is pushed to her extremes and transforms into a person she never expected to become.

Part psychological thriller and part survival drama, Cruel Hands is structured through flashbacks and parallel storylines that transform the physical landscape of fire and flight into something interior and inescapable. Impressively, the catastrophic 2019 Black Summer bushfires function as both backdrop and metaphor.

Austere, urgent, unsettling, Cruel Hands will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Screens with The Way of the Wind.

Festival Appearances & Awards
Austin Film Festival 2025 – Winner, Dark Matters Best Narrative Feature Award