Like another film based on a true story from Australia - Snowtown - this is a grim telling of a very unpleasant tale. The palette of the movie is gritty and washed out with a persevering lack of hope, and just in case you were in doubt the musical score reflects the vast and dark land. There is not one single female in this movie, as it's about a place where none were. Almost like a dream of life lost for the souls there the feminine warmth is a lost memory and song. Seen perhaps a cautionary tale of a hard and man made time it depicts shows how this may have transpired, how it may have come to pass with a stand out line for me being "six pairs of shoes". This is no movie for the faint hearted and the acting is absolutely top notch. Be warned however this is not a study of human spirit over coming anything but rather about the dark slide into the worst aspects of a hopeless humanity. As a horror genre fan no horror movie is anywhere near as horrific and haunting as I found this one, because it's a real story about a terrible thing. All I felt was sadness for the characters, every one. When I curled up in bed that night later I simply felt lucky to be there.

Although it felt like a rewarding experience, Van Diemen's Land is not what you would call an easy watch. The viewer is transported back a couple of centuries, and plunged into the harsh and untamed Tasmanian landscape, for a fairly straightforward tale of man v man v the environment.

Despite its' simplicity, it's an affecting tale, helped by the sparse, evocative and apologetic "I'm a quiet man" voice-over that threads its way through the narrative, holding together the otherwise un-holdable. It's very much 'in-your-face' as there's little historical explanation, and only the vaguest sense of any future ahead, which compels you to focus on the here-and-now. The score is haunting, and the film is beautifully shot, with bleached-out greens emphasizing the unforgiving nature of their surroundings and predicament.

The trailer gives a good indication of what to expect, including two of the more iconic sequences that stayed with me long afterwards – one scene where the group are running time-lapsed and ghost-like through the forest trying to escape their pursuers, the other the shockingly swift brutality with which the second inmate on the menu meets his maker. Elsewhere, we experience the messy and protracted depiction of how hard it is to kill a man, and as the numbers dwindle whilst the tension and paranoia mounts, individual camp fires become the order of the night, as the lengths men would go to survive become increasingly desperate.

On the downside, I struggled to hear some of the heavily-accented dialogue (especially when the speaker was off screen), and it was hard to believe that there were no other nutritious animals in a rainforest, bar a solitary snake. Given their limited resources, quite how they would have caught them is another matter, but they'd have sure as hell tried, to save from eating each other.

I came out feeling like I'd been badly mauled after 12 rounds in a ring with an enormous and unbeatable foe. It's a real powerhouse of a film that I would most certainly recommend, even though one viewing is quite sufficient for me in this lifetime. 7/10.

It's based on a true story. The music, cinematography and the acting was superb. I love this movie, the bleakness, the nature..it's really interesting to see something darker about human nature.if you want something fun then this movie isn't for you. The music when the credits roll...outstanding! I never written a review before nor will it probably help you in anyway but it justifies that how much i love this movie.

sorry for my bad English