This site uses cookies to personalise your experience. I'm shocked to find out that it's taken so long to be brought to light… Thanks for doing such important work!" Rolf de Heer is without a doubt one of Australia’s most interesting and productive auteurs. A minimalist piano score (by Graham Tardif) adds the right note of melancholy reflection to a story that is nevertheless very funny at times, and ultimately hopeful. He is well matched in supporting performances, particularly by the quiet Peter Djigirr, but it's to him that our eyes always return. Charlie continues to get in trouble with the law and gets sentenced to a term in prison, something which he absolutely laments. You'll have the best seat in the house for the 'Sydney Film Festival Selects' collection at SBS On DemandA free movie collection curated by Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley.
Spread the virus that needs spreading: knowledge. His new modern life offers him a way to survive but, ultimately, it is one he has no power over.
The Press Kit presents the Director's Statement on the making of Charlie's Country. The article also covers the various themes and motifs underlining the context of the film and how filmic techniques enhance the film in portraying its message. After a run in with police, Charlie finds himself in prison.De Heer's film is a slow indictment of the colonialist relationship between white law and Indigenous people. There is a sense of directionless in much of the film: it feels much longer than it's 107 minutes, and we're not quite sure where de Heer is taking us, or how far through the story we are. The earlier films were The Tracker (2002) and Ten Canoes (2006). These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Evan Williamson wrote an excellent review (‘Star turn from David Gulpilil in Charlie’s Country’, The Australian, July 19, 2014) and I take excerpts, adding my own comments in italics: With wit and compassion, these scenes illuminate perfectly the farcical misunderstandings that arise when traditional Aboriginal culture and white bureaucracy live side by side. As the heaviness of the world takes its toll on Charlie, Gulpilil's eyes deepen in their sadness. Now streaming at SBS On Demand.Dinner and a Movie: ‘Labor Day’ paired with rhubarb and apple pieMatch a meal from SBS Food with a movie at SBS On Demand, for the perfect night in.Mark Reconciliation Week with these Australian films at SBS On DemandCelebrate history and storytelling in National Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3).Dinner and a Movie: 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' paired with smoked eelMatch a meal from SBS Food with a movie at SBS On Demand, for the perfect night in.On the beach at the end of the world with Warwick Thornton and his unruly chooksGetting back to basics, filmmaker Warwick Thornton exorcised his inner demons in remote WA.Say kia ora to the New Zealand movie collection at SBS On DemandNew Zealand is a leading force in diverse and quality cinema.
When Charlie is indicted it is for a crime he did indeed commit, but we also see the endlessly complex, unsupportive and disparaging circumstances that lead him to that point. It’s a tragedy to see Gulpilil like this; these scenes were apparently inspired by de Heer’s own visits to Gulpilil while he was in jail, visits where the germ of this fictional story was born. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws now. — Traditional proverbWhy not explore what Australian governments also want to keep under lock and key? Spread the virus that needs spreading: knowledge. One of two Australian films selected for screening at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Charlie's Country (2013) is the third collaboration between writer/director Rolf de Heer and actor David Gulpilil. Blackfella Charlie is out of sorts. Charlie relates how he will be taken from his community to Darwin and he will die alone away from his country. Written by Rolf de Heer and David Gulpilil as a collaborative project, Gulpilil appears in every scene in a film that starts on a light note when Charlie helps police capture two drug dealers.But the government’s Northern Territory intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. It’s a triumph and a relief when the starving man, ribs protruding and belly concave, finally catches himself a decent feed, tucking into a piece of grilled barramundi with glee. Charlie (Gulpilil) lives in a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land, where he and the other men of the community struggle with cultural ties in world dominated by white law and both deliberate and incidental racism. Old Lulu says he has kidney disease and is dying. With the primarily white police force, Charlie is congenial, fooling them into thinking he is an expert tracker. Charlie's Country: director Rolf de Heer on set with David Gulpilil. "In teaching others we teach ourselves."
— Frank
Movies. Rolf de Heer’s new film Charlie’s Country, which opened yesterday, examines the day-to-day experiences of an older man in Arnhem Land as he struggles for independence and respect in … But Gulpilil’s performance keeps it from crossing too far into hand-wringing preachiness. Rolf de Heer discusses the background of the scripting and making of the film. It’s a strategy that could have gone so wrong, especially in the hands of a less skilled performer and director, and yet here it’s perfect. After his prison sentence, Charlie goes back to the Aboriginal culture and starts to teach boys traditional dances from his generation out of fear that the culture which he knows and loves will be forgotten.