Charlie’s Country

Although the village community mainly consists of aboriginal residents, the laws are nevertheless established by the Australian government. When aging Charlie is hungry and wants to hunt something, a police officer takes away his spear, and when he feels like drinking some grog with his friends, he has to leave his native region, where alcohol is prohibited. In the end, as a result of constant malnutrition, his low social status, and cultural domination by white people, he decides to return to the bush, where he is quickly convinced that he can no longer meet the demands of life in nature. Director Rolf de Heer (Alexandra’s Project, Ten Canoes, Dr. Plonk), no stranger to New Horizons audiences, and with no unnecessary moralizing, he shows us the current situation of Australia’s Aborigines, who, unable to adapt to new conditions in life, are being pushed to the margins of society. At the same time, he tells a simple, touching story about a good-natured man who, with the arrival of civilization, became a foreigner in his own country.

Adam Horowski