It's not a biblical epic as the title might suggest but a sadistic drama of rape and revenge.Daniel (Tom Long) is rehearsing some complicated dance moves under the direction of his choreographer Isobel (Greta Scacchi). It's a violent and sexy routine as he leaps air borne swinging through the air at the end of a rope. Isobel is not 100 per cent pleased as she feels he lacks the required deep inner feeling for the role..With the rehearsal over, Daniel's partner wants a cigarette so Daniel dashes off to buy her a packet. He doesn't come back. Days and days pass, but still no Daniel. A private investigator is engaged to search for him.I suppose the revelation is that he was kidnapped by three women heavily cloaked in monks' robes but further details are sadly missing. They pin him down to the floor of a disused warehouse, each wrist shackled to the floor, each ankle shackled in the same way so when stripped of his clothes he looks like a large letter X. The black cloaked women hover about his naked body like crows over a human carcase raping him orally and anally as he screams to be released. "He stinks" says one "wash him" And then we see the erotic bathing of his face and body. This is really strong stuff for public viewing. But there is more to come. His hands are released on the promise he will masturbate himself so that the lascivious women can watch with glee the changing expressions on his face.After 12 days they are done with him and he is dumped blind-folded in a dusty field. Humiliated and disgusted he finds his way back to his partner. After the intensity of the earlier scenes. the film here begins to sag. Daniel clamps up and nobody else presses him for information about his recent absence.The rest of the film is pretty much a lone search by Daniel to find the perpetrators of his ordeal. I found the scene at the police interview quite unconvincing. And where do you start when looking for a girl with a tattoo on her breast or a redhead with a glorious head of hair. And how do you know it's really the one you're after. No matter. He stalks and rapes them. In a way he's getting his own back.Eventually he meets up with the policeman who has been searching for him. He seems to heed the policeman's advice "You've been starting at the end. You should start at the beginning". Rather odd advice if you ask me. But it does give you something to figure out as the film ends. As a matter of fact there are a lot of unanswered questions. All the same I'm glad I watched this Australian film. It's very different, though some might find it offensive.

Firstly, the title has no relevance whatsoever to the movie. It started off fine with good development but got annoying when he couldn't tell his girlfriend what had happened to him. Even his attempt to tell the police failed, which just added to the annoyance value. There were too many pregnant pauses in the movie that seemed more like filler than anything worthwhile. The plot never revealed who did this crime to him although a good plot would have allowed disclosure. The ending was nothing short of "hey we've run out of budget let's stop it here NOW!!"...If I'd written a novel that ended this way I'd top myself. TRASH TRASH TRASH!!

This looks like one of these Australian movies done by "talented" students and funded by the government. It is chock full of smart shots of colors and shapes and verbal excursions into Freudian psychology to be appreciated by art students and teachers alike, but in general it is perceived a stupid mockery of good cinema, good storytelling and generally good taste. This what happens I guess when art students become so obsessively indulgent. "Pink Flamingoes" is miles ahead one the same subjects. Some porn movies from 70s are far more watchable and inspiring. Book of Revelation is not entirely without merits, but as an overall experience it is well below average B-grade.

Well it certainly stunned me - I can not believe that someone made another Australian film that's even more boring than Somersault. The story is implausible, the characters, with the exception of Friels' and Mailman's characters, are unlikeable and wooden, Tom Long possesses a VAST array of facial expressions: happy and not happy, and the "sex scenes", which could have been very confronting and disturbingly erotic, would have been at home in a low-budget porno flick.This is the first movie I have seen in 30 years of cinema-going that has had me on the edge of my seat....ready to get up and leave.The best thing about this movie is the promotional poster.