Sweet Country Directed by Warwick Thornton
Sweet Country
Directed by Warwick Thornton
Starring: Bryan Brown, Matt Day, Tremayne Doolan, Trevon Doolan, Anni Finsterer, Gibson John, Ewen Leslie, Hamilton Morris
Year: 2017
Country: Australia
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
“Hang the judge too."
The modern colonization of Australia was born with the arrival of the explorer James Cook and the transformation of the whole continent in huge jail, distant from everything and from everybody:
"Only at the end of the eighteenth century, after the scientific exploration of James Cook, there was the first allocation of the settlers in Australia, which marked the beginning of the exploitation of the new continent by the Europeans.
...
... Cook's observations prepared the future English colonization. In fact, only a few years passed between his last voyage and the foundation of the Botany Bay penal colony on the east coast of Australia.
...
An entire continent becomes the laboratory of a social experiment never tried before: transforming the natural geography of a place into an open-air prison where it is possible to export the worse part of their society, the debris produced by the industrial revolution, to better exploit the workforce." (1)
But the most important migratory flow occurred after the Second World War. During the war, Australia was attacked hardly by the Japanese, with the terror of a possible occupation.
The characteristic of Australia is an evident dichotomy, it is a historically European nation while geographically it is Asian.
The risk of future war forced Australia to increase the migratory flows but controlling them closely. The strict law of immigration lasted for many years but falls:
"In 1973 the White Australia Policy, an immigration restriction policy for those who were not white-skinned, was dismantled and in 1975 the Racial Discrimination Act was issued and all race-based migration policies were banned." (2)
Another fundamental element of Australian history is being inhabited before the arrival of Europeans by the aborigines:
"... Great Australia was reached and populated by a modern man about 50000 years ago. Actually, they exist among the scientists two different hypotheses of dating, known as "long chronology" and "short chronology", one based on measurements obtained with thermoluminescence and the other on radiocarbon dating. The first hypothesizes an arrival of human beings placed between 60000 and 50000 years ago, while the supporters of the short chronology are convinced, instead, that the arrival of the oldest populations occurred only 45000 years ago ... " (3)
The two cultures and the two worlds came into conflict and, of course, Western modernism prevailed:
"... even action against native populations appears to be dictated by a cynical pragmatism that adapts to circumstances. If the Australian aborigines proceed to their psychological and physical annihilation, they come to produce a sort of real "cultural genocide" through the abduction and re-education of the "Anglo-Saxon" values of Aboriginal youth (the "stolen generation" ») (4)
The revenge of the aborigines will occur with the sense of guilt that will invest the world colonizer against all defeated people. The colonized will have a social, cultural and often even economic victory.
Against this social background - the European hegemonic, the aboriginal defeated and the future sense of guilt - the director Warwick Thornton presented the film Sweet Country at the 74th Venice Film Festival.
Warwick Thornton, an Australian, explains how he is an aborigine but now distant from that world:
"Yeah, I am Aboriginal but when I step outside of Central Australia I am a tourist, just like everyone else. Like, if I was in Arnhem Land, I do not really have a connection to that country. I do recognize spiritual diversities, and I do recognize that I have recognized that whole connection, but my connection to it is very much limited. I know when I work in other peoples' country I need to surround myself with people That's really important to making the film." (5)
We are in the vast space of Australia in the twenties of the last century.
A pot on the fire boils while a black and a white quarrel. Afterwards, a panoramic view shows us the immense and infinite environment. We understand how the Australian world knows no limits, and that immeasurable territory hides non-rational events.
In this great territory, the human relations between the European immigrants and the natives are difficult.
Persons are different and have some different attitudes.
If the natives are, by definition of the director, the good ones, the colonizers have various aspects.
Harry is an immeasurable asshole, Fred is a religious bigot but he is convinced - but only by religious faith - of the equality between whites and natives because they are both sons of God.
Sam is the aboriginal and, by definition, is the good while the sergeant Fletcher is the dubious and contradictory character. The metaphorical growth of the new nation obviously passes from the sergeant. It takes some time, it takes contrasts but the result will come.
The structure is the classic one of the western: they eat disgusting things like bulls' balls, the expenses are wide and empty, the rides, the chatter around the fire at night and then intone Jesus love me.
The classic duel, the judge, the uncertain but exact trial.
This time the law is right but the justice of the people performs the infamous gesture.
"What chance does this country have?" The question is rhetorical after a cruel and unjust action. In reality, the future of Australia can only be great; in fact, with a long shot, a rainbow appears on the horizon at the same time as the pronunciation of the interrogation.
The director is good at leading the film as a western adventure and in representing incompatible characters.
Another topic is on the enormous spirituality of the aborigines. The author uses quickly editing with many short scenes. They represent the future thought of an accomplished gesture, like the kid who stole the watermelon, the image runs away when it eats it. This model is reported many times as a reading of the thought and the future of the aborigines as if it were the demonstration of the existence of their religiosity.
With flashbacks and flash-forwards, history has no linearity but acquires moral intensity.
