Director: Jordon Prince-Wright
Gallipoli's trenches provide the backdrop for Before Dawn, an Australian war drama built from real ANZAC diary entries rather than a single invented hero.
What is Before Dawn about?
Before Dawn follows a group of young Australian soldiers during the First World War, tracing their journey from raw recruits to survivors of one of the country's most costly campaigns. Drawing on diary entries and letters left behind by real ANZAC troops, the film reconstructs the daily grind of trench warfare, the waiting, the fear, and the fragile bonds formed between men far from home, rather than building the story around a single embellished protagonist. Director Jordon Prince-Wright favors ground-level, muddy realism over battlefield spectacle, keeping the focus on ordinary soldiers caught inside extraordinary history.
Cast & crew
Levi Miller leads the cast as one of the young recruits, alongside Travis Jeffery, Ed Oxenbould, Stephen Peacocke, Myles Pollard, Tim Franklin, Jordan Dulieu and Darren Jasper, who together play the wider platoon of soldiers, officers and the people they leave behind. The ensemble carries much of the film through small, quiet moments rather than individual star turns.
Context & significance
Released in 2024 and produced in Australia, Before Dawn arrives as part of a long line of ANZAC-focused war films made for the country's remembrance culture, but it distinguishes itself by leaning on primary-source diary material instead of a conventional war-movie arc. The approach places it closer to a historical record than a typical action-driven war picture, and it has been discussed mainly for that documentary-adjacent grounding. The film runs 101 minutes and keeps its scope focused rather than sprawling across the entire Gallipoli campaign.
Where & how to watch
Before Dawn is available to stream on K-Time after logging into a free account, with Persian dub and Persian subtitles included for viewers who prefer to follow the story in Farsi. The platform's Farsi-first design makes it straightforward for the Iranian diaspora to browse historical dramas like this one alongside the rest of the catalog, from search results to the player itself.