Cliffy

Conscious Cinema – Cliffy

Directed by Dean Murphy

Set against the backdrop of the early eighties, Cliffy retraces Cliff Young’s extraordinary journey from famously training in gumboots among cow paddocks through the epic six-day period of the ultra marathon and his emergence as Australia’s most unlikely sporting hero. Cliff Young was a 61-year-old Australian potato farmer, barely eeking out a living, when desperation drove him to enter the inaugural 550-mile Sydney-to-Melbourne footrace. Competing in this race were some of the world’s greatest distance runners, and Cliffy would seem to have no chance. Yet by running eighteen hours a day and showing remarkable stamina, Cliffy took the lead and ran straight into the hearts of his countrymen.