Essay Database

Shine is an emotionally transcendent drama about one man's extraordinary victory over adversity. It introduces international audiences to Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks and to his star, Geoffrey Rush, one of his country's leading stage actors in his first major screen role. Inspired by the troubled but ultimately triumphant life of classical pianist David Helfgott, Shine focuses on Helfgott's painful retreat into a private world while still in his early 20's and on the brink of …

…entire creative team to get inside the head and heart of David Helfgott that defines Shine. "The film is," says Hicks, "a story about the power of love, both to destroy and to redeem: It is this emotional current which underscores the drama and explores areas of human experience that we are all touched by. I believe that an audience wants to be taken on an emotional journey and that's what I attempted to do