Brief Explanation

This film tells the little-known story of Australia’s 16th Battalion during one of the most harrowing charges in national history. 100 years ago, in the midst of a WWI offensive in Gallipoli, Turkey, the battalion received an order to charge up a steep slope and straight into enemy gunfire. Despite this, they sang “It’s A Long Way to Tipperary,” refusing to let the enemy break their spirits—even as bullets broke through their ranks. As the film begins, supers tell us this story while we pan across the faces of 338 young men, all whistling the “Tipperary” song. As the supers elaborate on this ominous charge, the men gradually stop whistling, one-by-one. Eventually, only a few men are left whistling. And then, just one. Finally, even he stops, and all 338 men now stand in silence with their heads bowed (the same number of men who fell during this fateful charge). We are left with the words, “Keep their song, and their spirit, alive. Raise a glass to those who serve.”