Before Dawn is a bold retelling of one of Australia’s biggest military victories during World War I. Inspired by real war diaries, Jim Collins (Levi Miller, Pan), a young man from the outback, leaves his family-run sheep station to join the soldiers on the western front with hopes of making a difference. But soon, the realities of the muddy, ruthless, and entirely unforgiving war take their toll on a guilt-ridden Jim.
As the men in the battalion are whittled away and hope becomes a distant memory, a final chance at redemption arises amid one of Australia’s greatest battles. Jim must risk death, or forever carry the burden of leaving yet another man behind.
Before Dawn’s writer-director Jordon Prince-Wright (The Decadent and Depraved) tells us more about his ambitious film.
STARBURST: What inspired Before Dawn?
Jordon Prince-Wright: I first saw these real soldier diaries during a school trip to a museum and I was fascinated. These were stories by real people in extraordinary circumstances, documenting their experiences. Later on, I found that many didn’t know that Australians fought on the western front, and a huge role was played by the ANZACs [Australian and New Zealand Army Corps]. That really stuck with me. As I became a filmmaker and worked on other projects, this story always remained close to my heart.
Your film has been praised for capturing the spirit of the real ANZAC diaries. Was this something you kept in mind throughout the whole shoot?
Yes and no, I mean, of course, I was always thinking about the diaries because that’s what made such an impression on me at an early age. As a filmmaker on set, you tend to be focused on telling a story. We had some veterans there on the film, and they had a little chat with some of the cast, reminding them that these events actually happened, the sobering reality of the whole thing, and I think that triggered a switch in everyone’s collective mind. We weren’t just there making a film, we were telling a true story about people’s experiences. There’s a sense of responsibility in that.
How do you balance historical fact with storytelling?
What’s interesting is that the First World War has so many different perspectives. When you’re talking about other conflicts, you can have 10 historians in the room and they all agree on the basic facts or how an event took place. We found with WW1, you could have 10 historians all disagreeing with each other, so I think you need to have a bit of creative licence in bridging drama with history. The actual environment, the trenches for example, needed to feel real and authentic, so everything was built to scale. At the Sir John Monash Centre in France, they said they loved the film because the trenches were the most accurate they’ve seen in any film, and even mentioned some very well-known war movies. That was obviously great to hear but it’s also a testament to the team because of how much research and work went into it.
From our reading, we realised when soldiers would die, it’s quick and unexpected, so we also avoided that Hollywood gloss. In some diaries, they’d be talking about their mates for several pages, then abruptly say one of them was killed during a shelling, then talk about dinner on the next page. It’s shocking to read but I guess that’s how fast things would change and how you had to deal with it. Even people who survived the war itself would fall sick or catch diseases afterwards in the hospital, so it was a real luck of the draw. One of my producers said to me that we want to raise awareness for the ANZACs. If an audience is taken on an emotional journey, they’re much more likely to connect with the subject and leave the film wanting to learn more, so I think it’s about finding the right balance.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
I hope people gain an insight into the ANZACs and everything they went through, and even walk away with a newfound respect. We all worked very hard on this film and are very proud of it. This is the biggest feature ever shot in Western Australia, and we were lucky to have the largest premiere here with over 1500 people in attendance, and so much support from groups and communities across Australia. Different audiences will always take different elements from the film, some think it’s all about the western front, others think it’s about a father-son relationship, and every answer is fine by me. So long as people walk away with some kind of emotional response to what they’ve seen, that’s my only hope in telling this story.
BEFORE DAWN is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital. You can buy the film here:
Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Dawn-Jordon-Prince-Wright/dp/B0CWLVP377
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/before-dawn-2024/id1752915408
