Telling a story about the inherent contradictions in both indigenous and colonial cultures and their practices is hardly an easy aim which all too often ends up recklessly spinning off into unfair stereotyping or outright cliché - either quick to villainize colonialists as imperialists who have no sense of moral uprightness and cast the repressed indigenous peoples of some region as morally perfect peoples living in a utopian integration with nature ... or the other way: the way conquerers often told the story lauding the good empire and denigrating the savages. This movie commits neither error. It explores the stereotypes and the moral highs and lows of both groups.
I don't think I've seen a more probing and honest film about this sort of subject since Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann). Though the production quality and budget are not near what they are in a Mann film, there is something actually brilliant about how this film is done WITHOUT the loads of cash which would typically ensure a production like this to be at very minimum, eye-candy watchable. It is a far greater accomplishment and leaves me bewildered why Ian Sharp and Nicholas van Pallandt aren't getting more credit than seems to be showing up here at IMDb.
Maori of New Zealand and bushmen of South Africa (though not directly represented in the film) comprise indigenous groups which have had extensive experience with British colonization for a couple centuries and form a layer of history beneath all of the action taking place in this film. The protagonist, Arjan van Dieder (Ray Winstone), plays a similar sort to his role in Cold Mountain as a man with a tough shell from a poisoned and violent past yet with a softer underbelly that could be at times vulnerable to coaxing. Keremea (Temuera Morrison) is the counterpoint to the protagonist (and nearly a second protagonist). The actor plays a Maori which is fitting enough since he IS one. The two actors play perfectly off one another's grit and tenderness.
There is one scene I would like to spoil though because the writing/direction is utterly impeccable. At the peak of the film there is a "discovery" which borders on psychologically cathartic and metaphysically salvific: at the cave/fire the fugitive & the tracker share a moment of sorrow separated in time and space but united where the solution to the fated, irresolvable moral entanglement is actually creatively worked out inside. This scene is incredibly powerful and proves this film to be written in a uniquely philosophical way meant to address the role of risk (to the point of self-sacrifice) and creativity (to the point of self- mutilation) when dealing with what seem to be insoluble ethical knots.
The scenery throughout the whole film is itself a character and would've been worthwhile without the incredible story-telling!
I don't think I've seen a more probing and honest film about this sort of subject since Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann). Though the production quality and budget are not near what they are in a Mann film, there is something actually brilliant about how this film is done WITHOUT the loads of cash which would typically ensure a production like this to be at very minimum, eye-candy watchable. It is a far greater accomplishment and leaves me bewildered why Ian Sharp and Nicholas van Pallandt aren't getting more credit than seems to be showing up here at IMDb.
Maori of New Zealand and bushmen of South Africa (though not directly represented in the film) comprise indigenous groups which have had extensive experience with British colonization for a couple centuries and form a layer of history beneath all of the action taking place in this film. The protagonist, Arjan van Dieder (Ray Winstone), plays a similar sort to his role in Cold Mountain as a man with a tough shell from a poisoned and violent past yet with a softer underbelly that could be at times vulnerable to coaxing. Keremea (Temuera Morrison) is the counterpoint to the protagonist (and nearly a second protagonist). The actor plays a Maori which is fitting enough since he IS one. The two actors play perfectly off one another's grit and tenderness.
There is one scene I would like to spoil though because the writing/direction is utterly impeccable. At the peak of the film there is a "discovery" which borders on psychologically cathartic and metaphysically salvific: at the cave/fire the fugitive & the tracker share a moment of sorrow separated in time and space but united where the solution to the fated, irresolvable moral entanglement is actually creatively worked out inside. This scene is incredibly powerful and proves this film to be written in a uniquely philosophical way meant to address the role of risk (to the point of self-sacrifice) and creativity (to the point of self- mutilation) when dealing with what seem to be insoluble ethical knots.
The scenery throughout the whole film is itself a character and would've been worthwhile without the incredible story-telling!