Though it's not quite in the same league as last year's knockout one-two of Snowtown and Animal Kingdom, this adaptation of a Christos Tsiolkas novel provides further notice of Australian cinema's new found boldness. A gay photographer (Ewen Leslie) heads to Athens to scatter his Greek Orthodox father's ashes and discover his roots; instead, he stumbles over the knots and tangles of a continent-spanning network of prejudice and exploitation. Footage of the austerity protests lends it an of-the-moment vibe, but essentially it's a historical horror movie, turning on the snapper learning what's been polluting his bloodline. The film's restlessness – schlepping from one Mitteleuropean hellhole to another – saps some momentum, but director Tony Krawitz pulls off several unsettling moodshifts, and takes extremely seriously the old-world traditions and superstitions a gorefest like Hostel could only sneer and snigger at.