THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS

Australia, 2022, 96 minutes, Colour.

Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, Darsan Sharma, Natasha Wanganeen, Gary Waddell.

Directed by Rolf de Heer.

For 20 years, writer-director, Rolf de Heer, has focused on Australian indigenous themes for his films, The Tracker, 10 Canoes, Charlie’s Country… Here is his most ambitious exploration of these themes.

In his commentary, Rolf de Heer notes that he selected locations that corresponded to his imaginings before he wrote the screenplay, adapting the events of his film to what might happen in these locations, from desert, to scrub, to hills, mountains, lakes, ruined stone buildings in the desert, the country town, the city, industrial centres… The desert and like sequences were filmed in South Australia, the mountains in southern Tasmania, especially Mount Wellington. Quite an agenda.

As we watch, we appreciate that this is an Odyssey story, a focus on Blackwoman, initially seen in a locked cage out in the desert – and the audience spends quite a time at the opening of the film gazing at her as she gazes at her belief and open surroundings. As she goes on a trek, after liberating herself, she moves through the countryside and its variations, a surreal experience for her and for the audience.

Blackwoman is played by a first-time performer, Mjawemi Hussein, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, use in refugee camp, migrating with her family to Australia, getting degrees and involved in social work. She is in every sequence – carrying the drama of the film.

Her Odyssey leads to her to encounter a range of different people, both dead and alive, in a kind of futuristic society, suffering an illness (and this film was written and made in Covid times), people wearing gas-marks, speaking indecipherable words, a group seen initially with a huge birthday cake, icing with toy soldiers on top, as well as miniatures of indigenous people and a flag – it is they who put Blackwoman in the cage and out into the desert.

And we begin to realise that, in many ways, Blackwoman is revisiting Australia’s past, black woman before invasion and colonisation, the 19^th century taking of the lands, the repercussions of suffering and death for aborigines, the building of the towns, and, surprisingly as it develops, a more modern era, vast engineering plants, industry. There are the railyards, the engines, the empty carriage, squatting there? And the contrast with the vast model railway and the exhilaration of watching it?

And, there is a range of characters, a dead gasmasked man buried in sand, Blackwoman appropriating his boots, an old white man, you’ll, cradling his dead aboriginal wife, a screaming woman, an old aboriginal preparing his grave, a colonial museum where Blackwoman borrows clothes, the black man in a cage being taunted by the men in gas masks, and, with more attention, two youngsters who befriend Black-woman and who are helped by her, offering some feeling and humanity, and removing of masks, for some audience relief.

Which means then that as the audience responds, puzzling over the events, making the references to indigenous history, and responding emotionally to Blackwoman and her trek as well as the strange and bizarre events, we are continually challenged to reflect on history, on racism, on violence, on the sins of the past – and what prospects we have for the future.

And, the challenge is still there in the final sequence, the delete Odyssey following Elliott’s line about having our end in our beginning.

A demanding film, certainly not for the impatient, and especially not for those who so often write blogs proclaiming that they are perennially bored.

1. The title? Blackwoman, her situation, her Odyssey, her encounter with people, kindness? Her survival – although the final image of the skeleton in the cage?
2. The work of Rolf de Heer, writing, directing, interest in aboriginal themes, history, racism, contemporary issues?
3. The location photography, the desert spaces, scrub, hills, mountains, lakes, stone ruins, country town, city, industrial areas? The musical score?
4. The portrait of Blackwoman, representing indigenous peoples all over the world, in an Australian setting (and the credits in different languages)? Indeterminate age, prejudice and taunting her, in the cage, transported to the desert, locked in, left, days and nights passing, eventually her ingenuity, scrubbing the lock, opening it? A representative Everywoman?
5. The trek, real and surreal, issues of water, food, sleep, the desert on foot, finding boots, finding clothes? Looking at the surroundings, decisions on where to go, tracks, hills and views, ruined stone houses, skeletons, the dead gasmasked man in the desert, buried in sand, taking his boots? The frantic woman? The old man, disease, cradling his dead wife, getting water, the exchange for the boots? The change of clothes? The old aboriginal man digging a grave? The black man in the cage and his being taunted? The Museum, the mannequins, taking the clothes (and later returning them)? The deserted country town? The roads, the highways, the more modern roads? Her making the white powder, putting the white around her eyes, wearing the gasmasked, becoming more anonymous?
6. The effect on Blackwoman, persevering in her journey, coming to the city, the buildings, the streets, the workplaces, engineering, manufacturing? The scenes of Blackwoman and her work, the factories, the chain around the neck, her getting free, sleeping on the floor, in the workplace?
7. The two young people, masked, revealing the mask, her revealing herself, the two youngsters, friendliness, difficulties in communication, the boy and his work, helping, the girl, the tai chi? The boy and the model trains, the exhilaration of the trains? The reality of trains, the rail yard, the engines, the carriage, their living in the carriage? The boy and his illness? Finding the girl in the corner, the wounds, taking her out to the water? Communication, joy, Blackwoman urging her to close her eyes – death?
8. Blackwoman, the experience of the Odyssey, her decision to return, the same parts, the museum and clothes, back into the desert, getting into the cage? And the final image of her skeleton?