The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

This incredibly successful Australian comedy traces the adventures of three Sydney drag queens who travel through the Australian outback in order to perform their exuberant act in Alice Springs.

On their journey through the desert, on a bus christened Priscilla, they encounter both friendship and enmity from the small bush communities. Guy Pearce is excellent as the youngest drag queen who has a tough mouth but a lot to learn about the world, while Hugo Weaving is moving as a man who must reveal the truth of his homosexuality to his son. Terence Stamp is unforgettable as the transgendered Bernice and the loving relationship that develops between Stamp and Bill Hunter’s outback “bloke” is very tender and touching.

Full of humour, colour and bizarre costumes for which the film won an Academy Award, Priscilla is a wickedly entrancing family movie which shows that not only Australian cities but the mythical Australian bush has been affected and changed by ethnic and sexual multiculturalism. The soundtrack is full of great drag disco classics from ‘I Will Survive’ and ‘Go West’ to the more recent ‘Finally’ and ‘Save the Best for Last’.