Anyone who has or has ever had any interest in Australia should see this film. It’s a story within a story based in a historical Aboriginal culture, the Gunwinggu, in the Northern Territories. What really struck me about this film was the tender and reverent manner in which it was made. The film makers clearly wanted to give us a glimpse of an almost secret society that barely anyone in their country, not to mention the rest of the world, has ever really seen (I am excluding Crocodile Dundee from this category).
The “present” is filmed in black in white, and we follow a group of men as they make canoes and maneuver through the swamp hunting for goose eggs. While they are doing that, Big Brother tells Little Brother a story, filmed in color, of their ancestors. The fable is meant as a tool for Little Brother, a parable that teaches the ways of the tribe (and tries to teach some patience too). In the story, a stranger comes to the tribe which startles everyone. He seems to want to trade magical objects, and the magician of the clan is afraid of him. He leaves, but soon after one of the elders wives disappears. The men think the stranger took her and go about getting her back causing no little trouble.
All the characters are played by local Aborigines. The film makers went to great lengths to avoid anything modern (airplanes, litter, clothes, etc.) so you really feel like you’re in this unspoiled land of old. There is a lot of humor and joking around, for instance one of the elders is addicted to honey and talks about it all the time. But all in all it’s a fascinating film about community and an amazing people.
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