Apocalypse Australis: eschatology on southern screens

Abstract

This article considers the historical convergence of Australian cinema and eschatological tropes, including threads from non-secular apocalyptic narratives, the spectre of nuclear war, the ghosts of genocide and the geographical histories of southern catastrophe, cataclysm and survival. It surveys a wide range of Australian screen productions, from Soldiers of the Cross (1900) to These Final Hours (2013), in order to read the runes of antipodean revelation, dystopia and finitude.