Aussie thriller Van Diemen's Land is available to own now from outlets all over Australia. The beautifully bleak, atmospheric and visually stunning effort from first-time feature director Jonathan auf der Heide was released nationally in cinemas last September to rave reviews. It tells the true story of convict Alexander Pearce, one of eight men who escape from Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour in 1822. In their bid for freedom, these immigrants - a band of English, Irish and Scottish thieves - must confront a more subtle enemy than the harsh conditions of the so-called 'Hell's Gates'... the Australian wilderness. The phrase "Abandon all hope ye who enter here" was plastered at the mouth of Macquarie Harbour. For these convicts, it may as well have been plastered on the way out too.

Van Diemen's Land is the third, and most underappreciated, of the destined-to-be-classic Australian releases of 2009. All of the awards and plaudits went straight to Samson and Delilah and Balibo - and with good cause - but this one seems to have slipped through the cracks in what was the best year in recent history for Aussie cinema. Van Diemen's Land - starring Oscar Redding as Alexander Pearce - is essentially an extension of auf der Haide's 2008 short Hell's Gates, which also starred Redding as notorious convict Pearce. Perhaps Van Diemen's Land is more similar in mood to the soon to be released and highly anticipated The Road - starring Viggo Mortensen, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, and directed by Aussie John Hillcoat (director of 2005's excellent The Proposition); a melancholy, slightly slower burn but no less rewarding or beautiful than Samson and Delilah or Balibo.

Van Diemen's Land contains a bevy of extras including audio commentary with director and co-writer Jonathan auf der Heide, co-writer and lead actor Oscar Redding and cinematographer Ellery Ryan. It also contains A Journey Up River: Making Van Diemen's Land, three additional featurettes: The Battle of the Beards, Subtleties of the Slate and From Bailbo to Van Diemen's Land as well as the theatrical trailer, original storyboards and an ATOM study guide. The DVD is in stores now through Madman Entertainment.