Genre: Drama
Director: Warwick Thornton
Starring: Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson
Running Time: 97 minutes (plus trailers)
White Australia’s attitude to the appalling divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has for many years been one of appropriate outrage. We talk about how dreadful it is for a set amount of time, and then move onto the next hot topic, whether it be Guantanamo or abortion or whatever. It’s very easy to talk about the terrible problems of petrol sniffing and child abuse that goes on in our far north when we sit around the table in a nice restaurant with our white-washed collection of middle to upper income earning friends. Samson and Delilah, the first feature film from Warwick Thornton, takes the brutal truths behind that dinner table talk and shoves it right in front of your face. Confronting, moving and wholly incredible, the film tells the story of two Aboriginal teenagers who attempt to escape their impoverished lives in a Northern Territory settlement by travelling to Alice Springs, and is undoubtedly one of the finest films of 2009.
On a technical level, Samson and Delilah is phenomenal. It won the Camera d’Or prize at this year’s prestigious Cannes film festival – the award given to the best first feature film – and well deserving it was. Writer/director Warwick Thorton was also the director of photography on the film, and has crafted an absolutely gorgeous motion picture. From the mesmerizing beauty of the sun rising over the Australian outback to the disgraceful conditions of the Aboriginal remote settlement, the cinematography in this film is simply sublime. The acting from the two lead – both of them first time actors – is equally impressive; never before have I seen a film in which the main characters speak almost no dialogue, and yet say so much. The films story arc is simple but utterly engrossing – more horrifying than any horror film, more tense than any thriller, Samson and Delilah is a beacon of storytelling.
Thematically, the movie is likewise an enormous achievement. In my recent review of Disgrace, I raised my concerns about recommending such an utterly depressing film. There is no doubt that Samson and Delilah is equally if not more soul destroying, but the reason I have no qualms about recommending it is because there is a point to the misery. While Disgrace simply seemed to wallow in hopelessness without any real aim, Samson and Delilah has an issue that it wishes to highlight. While Disgrace left audience members wanting to slit their wrists, this film will leave you wanting to do something about what you have just seen. And while I’m not naïve enough to believe that this film will cause any kind of reform, at the very least it has altered my own understanding of the issue drastically. At the same time, the movie is never overly preachy; so many issue-based films feel weighed down by their message. Thankfully this is a problem that Samson and Delilah does not suffer from.
There is certainly no sugar coating in this film. The movie’s aim is to depict the harshest of realities, and whilst I cannot say to a certainty that it does, what we see is still pretty bloody awful. The conditions that these people live in are truly third world, and as an Australian it is impossible to view this film without feeling embarrassed and ashamed. There were two scenes that affected me particularly strongly. The first came when Delilah finds her grandmother’s paintings for sale in an Art Gallery; whilst this was the only time I thought the script’s believability was being stretched, it is also an undeniably powerful scene. The second comes when Delilah visits a church. Her silent confrontation with the priest in this scene created in me so vehement a reaction that I actually felt physically nauseous. No film that I have seen in my life has ever used silence to so great an affect as Samson and Delilah does; there is no need for words, as the truth is written all over peoples faces.
Samson and Delilah is a hard film to watch. It is bleak, tragic, and although the ending leaves us with a glimmer of hope for at least one of the protagonists, the story goes to so dark a place that I believe I could make a very convincing argument that the last fifteen minutes are nothing more than a dying, petrol fume induced dream. Never the less, Samson and Delilah is one of the most affecting and well made films I have seen all year, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. International readers should definitely make the effort to see this film if it ever gets distributed overseas. For Australians, I believe Samson and Delilah should be mandatory viewing, both as a cinematic masterpiece and as a damning exposé on the horrifying living conditions of many Indigenous Australians around the country.
Samson & Delilah is in limited release in Australia now.
Director: Warwick Thornton
Starring: Rowan McNamara, Marissa Gibson
Running Time: 97 minutes (plus trailers)
White Australia’s attitude to the appalling divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has for many years been one of appropriate outrage. We talk about how dreadful it is for a set amount of time, and then move onto the next hot topic, whether it be Guantanamo or abortion or whatever. It’s very easy to talk about the terrible problems of petrol sniffing and child abuse that goes on in our far north when we sit around the table in a nice restaurant with our white-washed collection of middle to upper income earning friends. Samson and Delilah, the first feature film from Warwick Thornton, takes the brutal truths behind that dinner table talk and shoves it right in front of your face. Confronting, moving and wholly incredible, the film tells the story of two Aboriginal teenagers who attempt to escape their impoverished lives in a Northern Territory settlement by travelling to Alice Springs, and is undoubtedly one of the finest films of 2009.On a technical level, Samson and Delilah is phenomenal. It won the Camera d’Or prize at this year’s prestigious Cannes film festival – the award given to the best first feature film – and well deserving it was. Writer/director Warwick Thorton was also the director of photography on the film, and has crafted an absolutely gorgeous motion picture. From the mesmerizing beauty of the sun rising over the Australian outback to the disgraceful conditions of the Aboriginal remote settlement, the cinematography in this film is simply sublime. The acting from the two lead – both of them first time actors – is equally impressive; never before have I seen a film in which the main characters speak almost no dialogue, and yet say so much. The films story arc is simple but utterly engrossing – more horrifying than any horror film, more tense than any thriller, Samson and Delilah is a beacon of storytelling.
Thematically, the movie is likewise an enormous achievement. In my recent review of Disgrace, I raised my concerns about recommending such an utterly depressing film. There is no doubt that Samson and Delilah is equally if not more soul destroying, but the reason I have no qualms about recommending it is because there is a point to the misery. While Disgrace simply seemed to wallow in hopelessness without any real aim, Samson and Delilah has an issue that it wishes to highlight. While Disgrace left audience members wanting to slit their wrists, this film will leave you wanting to do something about what you have just seen. And while I’m not naïve enough to believe that this film will cause any kind of reform, at the very least it has altered my own understanding of the issue drastically. At the same time, the movie is never overly preachy; so many issue-based films feel weighed down by their message. Thankfully this is a problem that Samson and Delilah does not suffer from.There is certainly no sugar coating in this film. The movie’s aim is to depict the harshest of realities, and whilst I cannot say to a certainty that it does, what we see is still pretty bloody awful. The conditions that these people live in are truly third world, and as an Australian it is impossible to view this film without feeling embarrassed and ashamed. There were two scenes that affected me particularly strongly. The first came when Delilah finds her grandmother’s paintings for sale in an Art Gallery; whilst this was the only time I thought the script’s believability was being stretched, it is also an undeniably powerful scene. The second comes when Delilah visits a church. Her silent confrontation with the priest in this scene created in me so vehement a reaction that I actually felt physically nauseous. No film that I have seen in my life has ever used silence to so great an affect as Samson and Delilah does; there is no need for words, as the truth is written all over peoples faces.
Samson and Delilah is a hard film to watch. It is bleak, tragic, and although the ending leaves us with a glimmer of hope for at least one of the protagonists, the story goes to so dark a place that I believe I could make a very convincing argument that the last fifteen minutes are nothing more than a dying, petrol fume induced dream. Never the less, Samson and Delilah is one of the most affecting and well made films I have seen all year, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. International readers should definitely make the effort to see this film if it ever gets distributed overseas. For Australians, I believe Samson and Delilah should be mandatory viewing, both as a cinematic masterpiece and as a damning exposé on the horrifying living conditions of many Indigenous Australians around the country.Samson & Delilah is in limited release in Australia now.
