Charlie's Country

Tender and heartbreaking. Despair and trauma resonate throughout. Gulpilil is brilliant.

If you can't bring something new to the table, please do not make same movies over and over again.

Heer's collaborations with indigenous writers, actors and groups are admirable, but the end result is always underwhelming. C.C is a well made film that sincerely attempts to explore weighty issues such as the effects of colonalisation and the destruction of culture, tradition and locality. However, it fails to probe deeply enough or get to the heart of the problems it is addressing. Gulpilil's performance and unique screen presence helps, especially during its numerous lulls.

O filme é manequieísta, todavia as atuações são muito boas e em particular o personagem do Charlie é muito bem caracterizado. Mostra de maneira bastante sensível e plausível como medidas da sociedade branca vão minando a vida na comunidade de Charlie levando ele a série de peripércias que ele passa.

Being a huge Rolf de Heer fan, I found this latest film a disappointment. Nothing against D. Gulpilil finally being a main protagonist, I just found the story too one-dimensional. It's simply him against "The Man". In this regard you could say the film is closer to an acted documentary, than fiction. But ultimately it contains the drama of neither. Would have been more compelling to give Gulpilil a real film-hero narrative... or just follow an aborigine around with a movie camera for 3 months.

Could've gone into many pitfalls concerning generalised portrayals of black and white people, but it avoids that by being earnest and presenting the people (namely Charlie) as flawed, but trying individuals whose strains and struggles are made harder by multiculturalism which has lead to further segregation. The movie is mostly about Gulpilil's tender, charismatic, and all-in "performance" (or exorcism), I'd be hard-pressed to find better acting from this year.