Around the Block

Christina Ricci stars as an American teacher who takes a troubled inner-city Sydney youth under her wing, in this gritty, unflinching yet inspirational debut feature by Australian director Sarah Spillane. Sarah Spillane's screenplay for Around the Block won an Australian Directors Guild Award before it even went into production, and her original script provides the foundation for this remarkably strong directorial debut. Energetic, fearless, and informed by Spillane's personal experiences, the film takes an uncompromising look at the lives of a teacher and a student struggling to find themselves in the gritty streets of Redfern, an inner suburb of Sydney that's home to the "block" of the film's title.