The Australian Embassy Film Roadshow is coming to Kathmandu for the fourth year in a row this weekend. Featuring six recent Australian films that will appeal to a broad range of tastes, the event will showcase developments in the Australian film industry and highlight the nation's history, culture and contemporary values. Past Roadshows featured award-winning films like Rabbit Proof Fence, Children of the Revolution and Sam Neill starrer The Dish.
Japanese Story is about geologist Sandy Edwards (Tony Collette) and Japanese businessman Tachibana Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima). Their polarised characters are thrown together purely for business reasons when Sandy reluctantly accepts the assignment to guide Hiromitsu with the hope of promoting her software designs. Hiromitsu, who is infatuated with Australia's limitless landscape demands that Sandy drive deeper into the unknown. At first Sandy openly displays her disdain and frustration towards Hiromitsu, yet a series of unpredictable developments allow attraction, desire and romance to ensue. 
Thunderstruck is about five friends, all fans of well-known Australian rock group AC/DC. In 1991 they make a pact that if any of them should die, they will bury him next to their favourite band's lead singer, Bon Scott. Twelve years later their lives have taken very different directions when the unthinkable happens. Now the estranged friends reunite for a cross-country road trip from Sydney to Perth in an old van to spread their friend's ashes next to his idol.
Swimming Upstream tells the true story of Anthony Fingleton, a young Australian who somehow manages to become a champion despite the obstacles of a disruptive family life and an abusive alcoholic father. Set in 1950s Brisbane, life is tough for Harold (Geoffrey Rush) and Dora Fingleton (Judy Davis) and their five kids, especially since Harold has a hard time keeping a job. With little money for recreation, the kids take advantage of the local swimming pool and soon Tony and his brother John are swimming faster than anyone. 
Ned Kelly is Australia's legendary bush ranger and folk hero. The film is an adaptation of Our Sunshine, a novel by Robert Drew about the Kelly legend. Ned Kelly (Heath Ledger) is wrongfully imprisoned for stealing a horse and when he returns to the bosom of his large Irish family, finds that the police won't let him go straight. After being accused of a crime he didn't commit, Kelly is left with no option but to go on the run. Accompanied by his gang (among them Orlando Bloom) he robs banks to survive and to gather money to free his family from prison.
Bootmen tells the story of brothers Sean and Mitchell Okden, two men who share a common talent-dancing-but have completely different ambitions. Mitchell, the elder (Sam Worthington) is a 'small town boy' who aspires to buy a trucking rig and start his own company. Sean (Adam Garcia) on the other hand, dreams of leaving Newcastle to pursue a career in the world of tap dancing. Sean finally gets a break when a talent scout offers him a position in a Sydney-based tap show starring Anthony Ford (Dein Perry). Before Sean leaves however, he falls in love with Linda (Sophie Lee), a beautiful young hairdresser who has recently arrived in town. As Sean strives to begin his tap career, Mitchell spirals into a life of crime. 
Getting Square Barry Worth (Sam Worthington) is an ordinary criminal doing time in a Brisbane jail after taking the fall for manslaughter in place of his employer and mother's boyfriend Chika Marin (Gary Sweet). He denies having committed the crime but does not reveal the name of the real killer for fear of what may happen to his mother and younger brother Joey (Luke Pegier). When corrupt detective Arnie DeViers (David Field) cruelly breaks the news that Barry's ailing mother has died, Barry's parole is fast tracked so he can take care of his younger brother under the supervision of his caseworker, the beautiful Annie Flynn (Freya Stafford).
