This is a hard-hitting drama in the cowboy Western style, set in outback Australia with British frontier characters including ranchers, police, military versus the overwhelmed indigenous Australians. When a traditional owner kills a settler's cow, all hell breaks loose with the colonial firepower turned loose on warriors with spears, women and children. In the mayhem, an over-zealous coloniser dies from friendly fire and a tricky situation persists.
When Tommy, a surviving child who has been brought up by white missionaries chances upon his blood relatives, the only resolution the British can contemplate is bloody erasure.
This is a completely gorgeous film to look at; the tones of the country, the eucalypts, the skies, the earth and ancient rocks. There is a soaring presence of birds in the skies over this tragic story, with reptiles slithering at ground level. Then there are the diverse, Aboriginal characters and the high drama of their naked or painted black skin. Jacob Junior Nayinggul, elder- Witiyana Marika (Yothu Yindi).
What wonderful acting we see from both them and the whities played magnificently by Jack Thompson, Simon Baker, Caren Pistorius & Callum Mulvay.
The film is the result of a 35-year collaboration between Director/ Producer Stephen Maxwell Johnson (Yolngu Boy) and Witiyana Marika (Yothu Yindi).
As specific in its tangled detail as a police report to a Protector of Aborigines, it also a story that echoes around this country and around the world. The film is much more exploratory than preachy. All facets of the human interactions are played out for us to grasp. 5 stars
When Tommy, a surviving child who has been brought up by white missionaries chances upon his blood relatives, the only resolution the British can contemplate is bloody erasure.
This is a completely gorgeous film to look at; the tones of the country, the eucalypts, the skies, the earth and ancient rocks. There is a soaring presence of birds in the skies over this tragic story, with reptiles slithering at ground level. Then there are the diverse, Aboriginal characters and the high drama of their naked or painted black skin. Jacob Junior Nayinggul, elder- Witiyana Marika (Yothu Yindi).
What wonderful acting we see from both them and the whities played magnificently by Jack Thompson, Simon Baker, Caren Pistorius & Callum Mulvay.
The film is the result of a 35-year collaboration between Director/ Producer Stephen Maxwell Johnson (Yolngu Boy) and Witiyana Marika (Yothu Yindi).
As specific in its tangled detail as a police report to a Protector of Aborigines, it also a story that echoes around this country and around the world. The film is much more exploratory than preachy. All facets of the human interactions are played out for us to grasp. 5 stars