The film tells the story of Romulus Gaiţă, a Yugoslavian immigrant to Australia after World War II and his struggle to bring up his son, Raimond, in an isolated shack in the Victorian bush. Raimond's mother has an undiagnosed mental illness and engages in promiscuous behaviour, before taking her own life, and Raimond has to deal with the deterioration of his father's mental health.
Roxburgh wanted to make a film straight after reading the book, Romulus, My Father, given to him by his sister. However, it took him seven years between first meeting Gaita to the film's release. Gaita had had several offers soon after the publication of the book, but had turned them down "because it's very hard to make a film about people with mental illness without being kitschy or in some way offensive". Gaita liked Roxburgh upon meeting him in London, but it was not until he had secured Robert Connolly and John Maynard as producers, that he felt that he could trust the three of them to make a decent film. Roxburgh later described making the film as "absolutely terrifying", because he didn't want to mess it up. Finding nine-year-old Kodi Smit-McPhee to play the young Raimond was a turning point because he was so perfect for the role.[1]
Nominated, AFI Award for Best Cinematography (Geoffrey Simpson), Best Costume Design, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Lead Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Best Lead Actress (Franka Potente), Best Original Music Score, Best Production Design, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor (Russell Dykstra), Best Supporting Actress (Esme Melville) – 2007
Nominated Australian Screen Sound Guild Award for Best Achievement in Sound for Film Sound Design, Best Achievement in Sound for Film Sound Mixing, Feature Film Soundtrack of the Year — 2007
Winner, FCCA Award for Best Actor in Supporting Role [Marton Csokas) – 2008
Winner, Special Achievement Award, FCAA to Kodi Smit-McPhee — 2008
Nominated, FCAA Award for Best Actor (Eric Bana), Best Actor in Supporting Role (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Music Score — 2008
Nominated, Young Artist Awards, Best Performance in an International Feature Film (Kodi Smit-McPhee)