Madeleine Dyer's A Savage Christmas was released in Australia on December 15. Photo / YouTube
Madeleine Dyer's A Savage Christmas was released in Australia on December 15. Photo / YouTube
A Savage Christmas is a product of what happens when you take the Hollywood-dominated Christmas genre and blend it with quintessential Australian humour.
Director, writer and co-producer Madeleine Dyer came up with the basis for the film, which was met with critical acclaim and has now broken the mould through its nomination for Best Indie Film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (Aactas).
But despite the film being praised for its uniquely modern take on the Christmas story, it was not what Dyer originally had expected. Furthermore, the work of her sister Harriet Dyer and her husband Patrick Brammell in the comedy series Colin From Accounts have earned them both nominations for high-profile acting awards at the same ceremony, making 2023 a successful year in the cinema industry for Dyer’s family.
In an interview with news.com.au, Dyer shared: “It’s all popping off, isn’t it? I missed the Logies with the Colin suite that happened there. They got three wins and I remember thinking, ‘Damn it, I really wanted to celebrate in that’.”
Given that Dyer had directed the first episode of the comedy show, her absence was dearly felt.
“And then lo and behold, the little Chrissy film that could got the nod [at the Aactas]. Look, I didn’t ever make this to be an award-winning, critically acclaimed film. Not that I don’t respect it in that way, but Christmas and comedy, those genres are harder to fit into that realm, generally.
Thea Raveneau and Max Jahufer star in Madeleine Dyer's A Savage Christmas. Photo / YouTube
“I did not see it coming, to be honest. It was just such a shot in the arm just to have that recognition and that nomination. It makes all the hard work worth it.”
A Savage Christmas is a film that covers the themes of family and personal identity through the holiday season, examining how differences between the two are often reconciled in today’s modern world.
Premiering on Australian streaming service Binge on December 15, the film follows the story of Davina (Thea Raveneau), a transgender woman who returns home for Christmas for the first time in three years, bringing her new boyfriend Kane (Max Jahufer) to meet the family after being estranged from them over the same period.
Davina expects that the family will focus solely on her transition when they sit down for Christmas lunch, much to her disapproval. However, the lunch goes down a different path as family secrets and lies are revealed by different family members in a hectic holiday spectacle.
“In this particular social and political climate that we’re in, there’s just such discordance, and we don’t have enough of a meeting point, often, from a compassionate standpoint,” explained Dyer.
“That’s what’s so great about family dynamics, is that you get put in the box and you do all this work on yourself and you change and you grow. And particularly for Davina, even transitioning again, it’s a great vehicle to show you can do all this work on yourself and still not be seen and heard for who you truly are.
“I think even though there’s quite an array of themes in this, they do service to say everyone’s got their s***, and we’re just trying to find a meeting point to understand each other that little bit more to get along.”
A Savage Christmas stars Darren Gilshenan as Uncle Dick, Helen Thomson as Brenda Savage and David Roberts as James Savage, alongside special appearances by Gary Sweet and Rachel Griffiths. Griffiths and Dyer had previously worked together on Griffith’s film Ride Like A Girl.
“It was a beautiful full-circle moment really, because since we worked together, we realised we had similar sensibilities around stories we want to tell, tapping into more transgressive topics and really not being scared to push the boundaries where we can,” said Dyer, who worked as a director’s aid for Griffith and earned credit on Ride Like A Girl.
“From working together, we always kind of had each other’s backs, and she was like, ‘Whenever you need me, I am there as a sounding board, but also if you need me, I can come up’. And it just so happened, it was like, ‘Rach, are you free?’ This was in early January when we were shooting, and she was just able to come up for a couple of days and have a good old time of it.
“She was just a dream to work with. So I find it really hilarious, and I was glad that we could really kind of go there with her and her character.”
Dyer used inspiration from her own experiences in life and growing up to create the script for the film. When it came to deciding where the movie would take place, she chose to film and set it in her home state of Queensland.
“We wanted to make it really sweaty, hot, suffocating. Queensland [has a] hot summer Christmas, so it was great to kind of get that ferocity and the feel and the landscape,” said Dyer.
“And there’s a few similarities from my family. We just converged with a lot of our own stuff to kind of have this crazy melting pot of a family. But definitely there would be some similarities where I think even my family would look at and go, ‘Oh, okay, she’s pulled from that, has she?’ But this is what happens when you’re a writer. You can’t help but do that. And it’s about finding that authenticity and that truth.
“But for me, I’m so passionate about always bringing stories back to the region, and even though it’s not north Queensland, being able to shoot out in Samford, Mount Samson, just outside of Brissie, it was just really, really great - and to support a lot of the emerging crew in that region as well.”
