HEALING

Australia, 2014, 115 minutes, Colour.
Hugo Weaving, Don Hany, Xavier Samuel, James Leonard Winter, Tony Martin, Robert Taylor, Jane Menelaus.
Directed by Craig Monahan.


This is a film one can heartily recommend to a wide audience. It is a beautiful film. It is a humane film. It is a film of hope and, as the title declares, of healing.

Writer-director, Craig Monahan, has not made a great number of films. He had success with his film, The Interview, 1998, about police and a criminal. It featured Hugo Weaving and Tony Martin who both appear in this film. Weaving appeared in his 2004 film, Peaches.

And, again criminals are an important part of the film. Hugo Weaving plays an officer in a Victorian prison. Don Haney plays a murderer serving an 18 year sentence. What brings them together, dramatically? The answer is birds.

Appearing during the opening credits are beautiful and moving sequences of an eagle in flight. In fact, throughout the film, there are many sequences of flight, eagles and owls, as well as close-ups of the faces and profiles of the birds. For these alone, many will find Healing well worth seeing. One of the birds, who is later named Yasmine, crashes into a fence. Matt Perry (Weaving) who has been looking after birds with his wife and setting them free for the wild, gets in touch with authorities at the Healesville Sanctuary to arrange care for the birds.

Perry comes to the idea of setting up cages and a sanctuary area within in the prison where the inmates could actually look after the birds and assist in their healing and re-training.

One of the prisoners, originally from Iran, Viktor, (Don Haney) shows an affinity with the birds and is commissioned to look after them, starting with Yasmine. He has been assigned a room (rather than a cell) which he shares with two young prisoners, the lazy Shane (Mark Leonard Winter) and the reclusive Paul (Xavier Samuel). Other prisoners help build the project.

While life is generally quiet in the prison, there is Warren (Anthony Hayes) who dominates the other prisoners and is dealing in drugs. He has a hold over Shane and unsuccessfully tries to dominate Viktor. Shane gradually understands the training of the birds and defies Warren – and after going to his twin brother’s funeral, accompanied by Perry, he decides to build a pathway amongst the cages in memory of his brother. In the meantime, Paul, secretive about his crime and his background, responds well to the birds and their training.

Another aspect of the plot is day leave for Viktor, to see his estranged son. But the day fails and Viktor seems to be back where he started, with Perry suspicious of him.

However, Glenys (Jane Menelaus) who is in charge of the birds at Healesville, trusts Viktor and pressures for the authorities to return him to working with the birds. The attempt to free Yasmine for the wild fails and she goes to Healesville.

While the film shows the healing of the birds, they are a symbol, of course, for the healing of the prisoners, with respect for them as persons, sensitivity to their problems, enabling them to walk free when their time has been served.

There is a very pleasing finale with the birds at Healesville Sanctuary.

This is quality Australian film-making, drawing on the talents of a wide range of technicians as well as of the cast and director.

1. The title question? The message? In images and symbols, in narrative?

2. An Australian story, universal impact? Victoria, the countryside, the prison, the city of Melbourne and its busyness? The Healesville Sanctuary? The musical score?

3. The theme of birds: the eagle flying, hunting, the owl, the pursuit, the accident? Perry and setting the owl free?

4. Victor, in the van, his threatening presence to save the young man?

5. The present, open, the range of inmates, their sentences, crimes? The entry process? The interviews? The rooms, sharing? The meals? The detail, eight hours a day? The wooden, his attitude? Matt Perry as a sympathetic guard? Leo and his friendship, sterner decisions? The range of the guards? The talent management, the more humane management, giving prisoners an opportunity?

6. Perry, the link with the Healesville Sanctuary, with Glenys? The bureaucrat at Healesville, afraid of the birds? The proposal of the show? Healing the birds? Outsourcing to the prison? Glenys’s assistant? The later scenes of the display, the birds, the visitors?

7. The flight sequences and their beauty, the close-ups of the faces of the birds?

8. The idea, Perry discussing with the warden, the building of the cages? Victor in charge? His choosing Shane and Paul? The details of the building? The project for the prisoners?

9. Shane, lazy, working Victor, resenting it? The photo with his twin brother? The news of his death, his reaction, grief? Perry going to the funeral with him? His suggestion of the pathway between the cages, doing the work, a memorial to his brother? His reactions against Warren? The possibilities for rehabilitation? His crime, drunk, backing over the child? Manslaughter?

10. Paul, quiet, not hearing his back story, gradually learning it, talk about his father, hard? ? In the room with Victor and Shane? With Shane, the discussions, Shane and his ambitions to buy the unit, showing the brochures to Paul? Paul and his work for Victor, with the birds, becoming attached? The sequence of letting the bird go into the wild, later checking on it? Some peace within himself? Achievement? His father visiting him? The reconciliation?

11. Issues of rehabilitation, the social worker, her presence at the prison, advice, to the warden? The warden and his management, worrying about the bureaucracy?

12. Leo, tough, going fishing with Perry, the sayings on his calendar and quoting them? His persuading Perry to reconsider Victor situation?

13. Warren, young, his control, drugs? His hold over Shane? Threats? Talking with Victor? Vindictive, Victor flushing the drugs down the toilet? The consequent treatment of Shane? Pressure? Threatening Victor? His killing Shane’s pet? Shane and the punch? The drugs planted in his room? His being transferred? Prisoners and their hierarchical systems?

14. The day release, the preparation for Victor, Shane giving him the leather coat, the framing of the photo of Victor and the eagle? Asleep on the train, leaving the picture behind, seeing his son waiting, his disappointment, drinking, Perry’s reaction, not trusting him, his having to start again? His working in the kitchen? Obsessive cleaning? In the hut, at work, in the kitchen?

15. Yasmine, his attachment to the bird, the details of the training, the trust, Yasmine not responding to Paul? Looking at Victor?

16. Perry, his wife, the death of their child, his taking down the swing?

17. Victor, his life, the background from Iran, drinking, killing his friend, 18 years, his shaming his family, not going to his wife’s funeral because of shame,
the distance from his son? His reputation for killing someone in Pentridge? Silent, obsessive, cleaning, in the room, dealing with Shane and Paul, building the cages, training the birds, a room on his own? Perry taking him to visit his house?

18. The ultimate decisions, Glenys and her tough mindedness, wanting Victor to work with the birds? The social worker, the warden, Leo and the pressure on Perry? His changing his mind? Having to let Yasmine go? not adapting to the wild?

19. Victor’s son, dictating the letter to the social worker, telling the truth, his shame? The son’s visit, his wife and the babt? Victor explaining the photo?

20. Everyone going to Healesville, the performance of the birds, Yasmine flying, Glenys encouraging Victor in his work? Yasmine flying to Victor?

21. The resolution, images, emotions, the wounded? Healing?