Burstall's first feature film, "2000 Weeks" was an ambitious contemporary drama about a writer, starring Scots-born actor Mark McManus (of "Taggart" fame) and Australian actress Jeanie Drynan, which was very notable at the time, being the first all-Australian feature film produced since Charles Chauvel's "Jedda" in 1954. Although it was reportedly well-received overseas, "2000 Weeks" was panned by local critics and it failed disastrously at the box office. The experience affected Burstall strongly and also influenced other directors and producers, including John B. Murray and Phillip Adams, who observed the hostile reaction to "2000 Weeks" and who as a result took their film-making in a more populist direction, as Burstall soon did himself.