Eureka

Of the three stories presented here, all of which go nowhere, unfortunately the third one is the most interminable and least convincing (including the silly CGI bird), making it very difficult to remain patient with the film. In theory, opening cinema out to other perspectives is something to welcome; in practice, it can very easily turn into a mess of vague uncertainty. That seems to be what happened here.

On the other hand, during the second part I did think about how the presentation of the depths of contemporary squalor in which some indigenous people presently live is something completely and utterly absent from Australian cinema: a literal taboo which no Australian filmmaker has the will or courage to break. That central section of the film is certainly the most engaging and interesting, but it seems as if the intention of the filmmakers was to frustrate the viewer’s expectations by refusing to let the story unfold: unfortunately they do so in a way that fails to provoke any more profound reflections.