Smash Palace

Smash Palace (1981)

She's my daughter and I'll do what I like!

Al Shaw's life revolves around motor racing and his back country junkyard, the "Smash Palace". His French wife, Jacqui, doesn't appreciate the lack of attention due to Al's obsession with cars. When Al finds her in the arms of another man, he takes his daughter, Georgie and heads for the bush, desperately hoping to hold on to the only family he has left.

Date of release
1981-05-01
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (33)
Runtime
1h 48m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Roger Donaldson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: New Zealand

Smash Palace is a 1981 New Zealand drama/thriller directed by Roger Donaldson. The film chronicles Al, a retired race car driver who runs "Smash Palace", a carwrecking yard in rural Manawatū-Whanganui, with his depressed French wife Jacqui and their seven-year-old daughter Georgie. After their turbulent marriage breaks down and Jacqui obtains a restraining order against him, Al kidnaps Georgie and descends into the forest.

Production

Roger Donaldson was inspired to write the film after reading a newspaper article of a 5-year-old boy being kidnapped by his police officer father in a custody dispute, which resulted in an armed standoff. The film was funded by the New Zealand Film Commission. When Donaldson first applied for funding, he was turned down.

Bruno Lawrence made significant contributions to the film's script, working on writing sessions after shoots. One of the conditions of the film's eventual funding by the NZFC was that it be completed in time to screen at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. This forced a tight schedule on the production team, giving only four months between the commencement of the shoot and the film's premiere.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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