Australian Cinema

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival people are able to experience very different kinds of Australian films, ranging from the black comedy short Bear to the naturalistic drama masterpiece Snowtown. Watching these movies will likely give you the impression that you underestimated the film business that this continent was able to establish over the course of movie history. Australia was actually involved in the world of cinema right from the beginning. Since starting out as a pioneer for feature films with the movie The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906, there have been gems now and then, like Jedda, the first Australian film shot in colour - which, like this year’s Toomelah [cover photo], featured aboriginal actors and had the honour to be featured at the Cannes Film Festival - or the Tarantino-like Two Hands, which made Heath Ledger into a superstar. Yet Australia has failed until now to become a place you associate with great cinema - a fact that taboo breaking movies like Snowtown might be able to change.

Facing a dark chapter of Australia’s recent history, adapted into a movie experience that isn’t easy to watch, but at the same time feels like something new and important, Snowtown has its own unique style and the possibility to become something that will stay in people’s minds for a long while. Someday maybe it will even be called a milestone in the country’s cinematic history.

Another Australian movie that managed to interest quite a big audience was Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty. Although the film met with a variety of reactions, the fact alone that an Australian debut movie made it into the competition for the Palme d’Or shows that Australia’s movie industry should be followed closely.

by Lukas Traber