Touch the Sun – Devil’s Hill (c1988)

It is 1950. Badge (Alexander ‘Mathew’ Jacobs) lives on a remote farm in Tasmania’s rugged southwest, with his parents Dave (Peter Hehir) and Jessie (Mary Haire). It is hard life but the family is full of hope as they battle isolation and the elements to make a go of it, much to the disgust of Dave’s brother Linc (John Flaus) who thinks they will fail. The tables are turned when Linc has to bring his children Sam (Cameron Atkins), Bron (Emma Pugh) and Sheppie (Jane McArthur) to live with Badge’s family when their mother is ill. Sam is a bully who thinks he knows everything and Badge is overwhelmed by him. The kind and gentle Badge forms an alliance with Bron, a timid, sensitive girl who also suffers from Sam’s bullying.

When the family’s beloved milking cow Bow-ra is killed, the children have to help find her run-away heifer calf in the bush and bring her back. On this journey, the children must resolve their differences and find a way to cooperate to succeed in their task, and Sam becomes a much more likeable boy in the process. And both Bron and Badge have to face their own fears along the way. The children find the lost heifer and also discover a lost herd of cattle which will help Badge’s parents make a success of their farm. They return home in triumph.

With his gap-toothed smile and great integrity, Badge is a delightful hero in this adventure story based on the classic Australian children’s novel Devil’s Hill by Nan Chauncy (1958). This lovely production captures the feel of the era – the loneliness, the hardship and the joys of life in the bush at this time. A seemingly straightforward story, the real focus is on the complexities of the characters, particularly the growing friendship between Badge and Bron, and the antagonism between Badge and Sam. Slow moving, thoughtful, beautifully cast and well acted, this is an enduring children’s story.