BENEATH CLOUDS
Australia, 2001, 90 minutes, Colour.
Damian Pitt, Danielle Hall.
Directed by Ivan Sen.
Beneath Clouds won an award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002 for its themes and for its director's first feature. It also formed part of the group of Aboriginal films released in 2002 in Australia - Australian Rules, Rabbit- Proof Fence, Black and White, The Tracker.
This is a brief film about two teenagers living in a town in north-western New South Wales. Lena has a dark-skinned mother and rejects the Aboriginal family around her. She is looking for her Irish father. Vaughn is a teenager living in a prison camp. When he gets out of the prison, he decides to go to Sydney. The two young people meet together and go on a road trip to Sydney, understanding themselves, understanding one another.
The film reflects life in country towns in Australia, the white families, the Aboriginal settlement. It also reflects the anger in young Aboriginal teenagers trying to find their identity and trying to hope for a future.
1. The history of Aboriginal themes in Australian cinema? Tribal Aborigines? Urban Aborigines? The remote towns of the Australian countryside?
2. The title, the credits and the atmosphere, the film's impact for Aboriginal audiences? The evoking of 19th century history, 20th century history at the beginning of the 21st?
3. North-western New South Wales, the flat countryside, the silos and the town, the cotton, the corn? The distant mountains, the bush? The film and its range of country landscapes? Special sites? The industrial aspects of Australia, the city of Sydney?
4. The Australian road, the road trains, the cars, walking along the roads? The towns, the hotels? The train?
5. Vaughn's story, the tree, the guard, the clashes, his sister, talking with the boy, the escape?
6. Lena's story, at home, her mother, her relationship with her mother, her age, her angers? The boys, eating, pregnancy? The seeming hopelessness? Home, going to the station, cigarettes, her mother drunk, the stepfather and the beating? Her room, the crucifix, the album? The postcard and her desire to find her Irish father? Leaving, the bus, eating, being sick, missing the bus, walking, encountering Vaughn?
7. Vaughn in himself, talking to Lena, his parents, his father, criminal? The cars, two years? His anger and surliness? Attitude towards the white people? The lifts, his hitting the woman? Friends?
8. The two young people, in themselves, the encounter, discussions? Walking, the cornfields, the pub, the police? Not telling them what was going on?
9. The police, the stereotypes of the police, their attitudes towards Aborigines, towards teenagers? The bashings? Licences?
10. Lena, her dreams, Ireland? The album? The old woman and the people? Her facing the truth?
11. The religious background of the film, the scene in the church, talking to God? The place of crosses?
12. Mother, death, the station? Running away?
13. Getting nearer to Sydney, the possibilities of a new life, escaping the drudgery of their lives, people's attitudes towards them? Sydney as a sign of hope for the future?
