Tim Winton’s Blueback takes on new life as a feature film starring a blue groper and Eric Bana

There's magic in this film, especially between a little girl and a big, wild fish she befriends. Photo: Roadshow

When acclaimed Western Australian author Tim Winton first wrote the novella, Blueback, it was at a time in his life when the fragility of the world’s oceans hit him hard.

He’d moved from a seaside country town to the city and was, he says, “mourning the proximity” to the water, so he turned his attention to marine conservation.