City News

08 AUG 2002

Leper colony sojourn a career highlight

 

SPENDING a month living and working in a leper colony may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but David Wenham lists it as a highlight of his career so far.

 

With a smile on his face Wenham recalled the time he spent living on the little Hawaiian island of Molokai researching his role as a priest in Paul Cox's film of the same name.

 

``It's such a fabulous little community, "Wenham said.

 

``There were 60 people living there who refer to themselves as patients as opposed to lepers because lepers has a stigma to it.''

Wenham said he was honoured to have had the opportunity to work on the film and to play the role of Father Damian who committed himself to looking after the patients at the colony.

 

For Wenham and Cox the release of Molokai marks the end of a major battle.

 

Cox finished filming the movie four years ago but it was kept from the screens after producers sacked him in post-production and cut their version of the film.

 

A landmark decision in a European court saw the rights to the film returned to Cox and his version was finally released to the market this year.

 

``I've just done a play, True West, in Melbourne and now I'm doing a bit of telly actually, After the Deluge, by Andrew Knight who wrote SeaChange.

 

With four weeks filming left on the mini-series in Melbourne Wenham said he was looking forward to taking a break and spending time at home in Sydney.

 

``This year's been pretty full on. I actually haven't had a week off since the beginning of the year.''