Black and White

Tagline

An inspirational story in the vein of The Tracker and Rabbit Proof Fence.

Synopsis

BLACK AND WHITE is a compelling story based on a 1959 landmark trial that irrevocably changed police procedure and judicial authority in South Australia.

It is Christmas 1958 in conservative Adelaide, a city that prides itself on its peaceful, well-bred qualities. An excitable young lawyer, David O’Sullivan (Robert Carlyle), is given the news that he has drawn a ‘bad lottery prize’ – a legal aid case. He must defend a young Aboriginal man Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra) who has been arrested for the rape and murder of a nine year old girl in the far west desert town of Ceduna. O’Sullivan soon concludes that the aborigine has been framed by the local police and decides he must take a stand. He finds himself pitted against Chamberlain (Charles Dance), South Australia’s Crown Prosecutor, a forbidding but tremendously charismatic character. O’Sullivan and his legal partner, Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox), embark on a ‘David and Goliath’ battle that threatens the world of closed ranks, hidden evidence and the establishment.

Aided by the young Rupert Murdoch, who is fast making a name for himself with his paper the Adelaide News, O’Sullivan takes the case to the highest courts in the Commonwealth. Manoeuvring narratives of political manipulation, police corruption and personal crisis, this is a wonderfully compelling story of right and wrong.