Simone Buchanan Movies

When her bike breaks down on a cross-country motorcycling holiday, lawyer Asta Cadell (Deborra-Lee Furness) stops off in a small Australian town to find a mechanic. Once there, she discovers that the women in the town are being raped and terrorized by a group of local thugs. While the townsfolk turn a blind eye on the boys' misbehavior, Asta vows to help young rape victim Lizzie Curtis (Simone Buchanan) seek justice. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Australia's longest-running sitcom, Hey Dad...! premiered in 1984. Robert Hughes starred as Martin Kelly, a widowed architect who forsook his lucrative business to raise his four kids: Simon (played first by Paul Smith, then by Christopher Mayer), Debbie (Simone Buchanan), and Jenny (Sarah Monahan). The series' "breakthrough" character was Simon's best pal Nudge (Christopher Truswell), who was given most of the big laugh lines. Simultaneously adored and reviled by the Australian viewing public (and, curiously, an enormous success on German television), Hey Dad...! remained on the air for ten years, racking up an astronomical 300 episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Runaway Island is set in Sydney, Australia in the 1830s. Miles and Simone Buchanan play Jamie and Jemma, the newly orphaned heirs to several thousand valuable acres of land. Cheated, harassed, and pursued by corrupt Australian officials, Jamie and Jemma take refuge on a remote island. Made for Australian television, Runaway Island was the first of a series of TV movies revolving around the adventures of Jamie, Jemma, and their many "misfit" allies. Most of the Runaway Island escapades were seen in America via pay-cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Little Rebecca Ann Porter (Simone Buchanan) is stranded on an island with Manuel Cortés (Henri Szeps) a refugee from a South American dictatorship, and the two are at odds, partly because of the differences in their economic backgrounds, partly because Rebecca is, after all, a little girl whose grasp on reality may not be quite the same as that of the refugee. Meanwhile, Rebecca's parents are frantically searching for her, but it takes the inventiveness of one of her good buddies to catch on to her whereabouts. When they are finally rescued, Cortés is threatened with deportation back to the dictatorship that wants nothing more than to get its hands on him -- but Rebecca goes to bat for him, taking on nothing less than the Ministry of Immigration. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Both actress Judy Davis and director Gillian Armstrong made a big splash on the international scene with this charming Australian film that examines late 19th century Australian society from the perspective of a headstrong woman who refuses to follow convention. The film charts the developing self-awareness of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) as she grows from an insecure tomboy to a self-assured woman. Sybylla wants to be a writer and stuns her family and friends by her insistence on following her dream. Despite the objections of her family acquaintances, she rejects the marriage proposal from the rich Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) to continue going her own way, in spite of the odds stacked against her in a repressive Victorian environment. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This third Runaway Island adventure finds the McLeod youths at the mercy of a gang of terrorists who capture them while the kids are still searching for their father's will. The series is set in 19th-Century Australia. ~ Rovi