Twenty-five years ago, the worst massacre by a single person in modern Australia occurred when a lone gunman shot and killed 35 people and injured 23 others.

The shooting, in Port Arthur, Tasmania, so horrified people that prime minister John Howard was able to pass sweeping gun control legislation in a matter of days.

Now, that moment in history has been fictionalised on screen in a controversial new film called Nitram, directed by Justin Kurzel.

Today on Please Explain, senior culture writer Karl Quinn joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the film and whether it should have been made.