Force of Destiny


Force of Destiny is a 2015 Australian film written and directed by Paul Cox. It was Cox's last feature. It starred David Wenham.
The film was based on Cox's liver transplant.

Premise

A sculptor, Robert, who lives and works by himself outside Melbourne discovers he has terminal liver cancer. He shuts down emotionally until he meets a marine biologist, Maya.

Cast

  • David Wenham as Robert
  • Hannah Fredericksen as Poppy
  • Jacqueline McKenzie as Hannah
  • Shahana Goswami as Maya
  • Mohan Agashe as Maya's Uncle
  • Kym Gyngell as Dr. James
  • Terry Norris as Derek
  • Seema Biswas as Maya's Aunt

    Reception

The film screened at the Melbourne Internationa Film Festival.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote the film "constitutes a series of scenes repeated with variation in pitch: Robert in hospital, Robert fretted over by his wife and daughter, then soothed by the devotion of Maya. The character of Maya is solicitous, unquestioning, mysterious but earthy: a flattened version of a real woman... the Indian sections in Force of Destiny — in which Maya returns to India to be by the bedside of her uncle, also stricken by cancer — feel organic only to the film’s financing."