CHARLIE’S COUNTRY

Australia, 2014, 105 minutes, Colour
David Gulpilil, Peter Djigirr, Luke Ford, Dan Wylie, Gary Sweet, John Brumpton, Bojana Novacovic, Ritchie Singer, Gary Waddell.
Directed by Rolf de Heer.

This is the third collaboration between director, Rolf de Heer, and celebrated aboriginal actor and dancer, David Gulpilil. The first film was in 2002, The Tracker. The second was the 2006 Ten Canoes, the dialogue in local languages. Now the focus is on the present, and spoken in aboriginal languages as well as in English.

The important thing is to focus on David Gulpilil himself. This film is particularly autobiographical. Since appearing in Walkabout when he was a teenager, David Gulpilil has had a marked career in films, Storm Boy, Made Dog Morgan, Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit-proof Fence, Australia. But he has also had a very difficult life, marked by alcoholism, domestic violence and, more recently, time in prison. The screenplay of Charlie’s Country, the collaboration between Gulpilil and de Heer, draws on all these experiences.

At the time of making the film, David Gulpilil was 60. He looks quite wizened, especially when, towards the end of the film, his hair, previously long, and beard are shaved. He looks like a very old man, wearing many deeper lines of age and experience. Which means that this performance is very courageous, allowing the limelight to be on himself and allowing audiences to know a great deal about his life-experiences.

Charlie lives in a settlement, a lean-to existence, with friends in the town, going into the supermarket to buy things, at the ATM with his credit card, family and friends asking him for money (which he gives) a blend of the traditional, the disruption to the traditional as well as to the realities of 21st-century life. Charlie goes hunting with a friend but the police confiscate their weapons. And then Charlie goes bush, going back in his mind and heart to the traditions, but he collapses and is taken to hospital.

The second part of the film is centred on Darwin, the hospital, shops and the buying of alcohol by those with cards (as Charlie has) but sharing it with the others in a settlement place in the Darwin parks. Ultimately, Charlie breaks out in anger and is arrested and imprisoned – with scenes of the monotony of prison as Charlie does laundry work, lines up (with overhead shots of the food) for meat pies, the pasta…

As with David Gulpilil in real life, Charlie has the opportunity to do something for others and chooses to train young boys in the ways of aboriginal dance and singing, a hopeful ending for this film.


1. The impact of the film? Australia in the 21st century? Aborigines? Whites? Aboriginal traditions? White racism? Possibilities and hopes?

2. The work of Rolf de Heeer, his three collaborations with David Gulpilil, local languages and English?

3. David Gulpilil and his career, when young, his films, dance, at the Opera House for the Queen, his hard life, drinking, domestic violence, prison and the
effect? His collaboration with de Heer and the self-revelation?

4. The photography, the Northern Territory, the lush north, the town, the bush, the old ways, the new supermarkets and ATMs?

5. Darwin, the hospital, the parks, the squatters and the drinking, the shops, the police, prison? The musical score?

6. The title, the focus on Charlie? As a character, his age, background, lean-to living, going into the town, the ATM and his money, people sponging on him, his giving this money away? Talking with his friends? His meals, the fire at the shelter? The invitation to go hunting, the knife and the spear? With the whites and their information? The killing of the buffalo? On the truck, the police stopping the two, application of the law, interrogation, the knives and spear, the reactions, the joke about the carcass rotting, the confiscation of the weapons? Charlie’s old friend, later visiting him in prison, telling him he got his knife back and licensed?

7. Charlie going to the bush, the traditional existence, the effect, his experiences, the images, sickness and collapse, his being found?

8. The hospital in Darwin, the treatment, his decision to leave, the doctor’s reaction?

9. The woman in the street, wanting the grog, Charlie having the card, the shopkeeper and the discussions, the police, the settlement, the group hurrying and hiding, the eventual roundup, some escaping?

10. Charlie’s arrest, the hostile policeman and his becoming more antagonistic, the charges?

11. Prison, Charlie’s head shaved, beard cut, looking old and wizened, his friend not recognising him? Life in the prison, the repetition of the laundry work, the meals shot overhead, the cafeteria meals of pasta, pies, rice and stew…?

12. Charlie to get out, the discussions with the parole officer, her help, friendship? His future?

13. Giving up the drink? The discussions? The young boys and the dance tradition, their wanting to learn, his taking the classes, the corroboree dances?

14. The blend of the traditions with the new, the continuity?

15. Charlie’s speech about himself, about aborigines, about his experiences, challenging the non-aboriginal audiences?