High Ground (2020)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | High ground |
| Country of production | Australia |
| original language | English , Yolngu Matha |
| Publishing year | 2020 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stephen Johnson |
| script | Chris Anastassiades |
| production |
Witiyana Marika , Greer Simpkin , David Jowsey , Maggie Miles , Stephen Johnson |
| camera | Andrew Commis |
| cut | Jill Bilcock |
| occupation | |
| |
High Ground is an Australian western and action thriller by Stephen Johnson that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2020 .
action
When Travis, a former World War I sniper and current law enforcement officer in the outback, loses control of an operation in northern Australia in 1919 and it degenerates into a massacre of an indigenous tribe led by its elder Dharrpa, his superiors insist to cover up the truth. Travis resigns indignantly, even if he was not only a witness but also an accomplice to the massacre.
Twelve years later he is called back by his former boss Moran with the assignment to hunt the Aboriginal warrior Baywara, who is wreaking havoc with attacks on new settlers. He hires the now 19-year-old, missionary-raised Australian native Gutjuk, who is said to have been the only one who survived the massacre, to track down his uncle Baywarra, the Aboriginal leader and descendant of Dharrpa.
production
High Ground takes place at the end of the Australian Frontier Wars, violent clashes between indigenous Australians and white settlers that spanned almost 150 years, and is based on real events. The program of the Berlinale states: “As a western about colonial violence and misunderstandings that resonate strongly in Australia today , indeed all over the world, the film questions the essence of loyalty as well as the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, as a free spirit and against the dogmas of one's own time. "
Directed by Stephen Johnson . After Yolngu Boy, it is his second feature film that he directed. Johnson also made numerous documentaries, animated films, commercials, and music videos, and worked on High Ground for 20 years . He developed the film with the close participation of cultural advisors from various indigenous clans. Johnson had conducted years of negotiations with indigenous communities in order to win their trust for cooperation. Ultimately involved Aboriginal actors, musicians and clan elders take up a larger space in the credits. The script was written by Chris Anastassiades .
The Australian actor Simon Baker , best known from the television series The Mentalist , took on the lead role of Travis. Jacob Junior Nayinggul plays the adult Gutjuk, Sean Mununggur his uncle Baywarra. Jack Thompson plays Travis' former boss Moran. The tribal elder Dharrpa, whose village is massacred, initially seen in the film, is played by the real Yolngu leader Witiyana Marika, who was also a member of the rock band Yothu Yindi , with whom Aboriginal rock was founded in Australia in 1986, and Johnson as a consultant and Co-responsible for the soundtrack and also acted as one of the producers of the film.
The filming took place in the Australian Northern Territory, here in Kakadu National Park , whose towering rock formation can be seen at the beginning of the film. Cinematographer Andrew Commis captured the sculptural landscapes of the wild land with drone footage, which is also a nod to the falcon images that are a key element of the film.
The first screening of the film took place on February 23, 2020 as part of the Berlin Film Festival in the Berlinale Special. In October 2020 he will be presented at the Adelaide Film Festival.
reception
In the festival report of the Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater for the Berlinale it is said that the film, which can be classified as an Australian Western, is politically engaged when it addresses the crimes committed against the Aborigines. In the opening sequence in particular, Stephen Johnson succeeds in capturing the brutality and arbitrariness with which the white occupiers take action against the so-called "savages" and with which the whites massacre all Aborigines in a frenzy of blood and do not distinguish between children and adults when they are slaughtered. Unfortunately, Johnson loses the figure drawing somewhat out of sight in his film, which leads to some bumps in the narrative flow. The message of the film, in which picturesque shots of nature contrast the often very bloody events on the screen, is clear: "In war all sides are stained with guilt, but especially in situations in which categories like right or wrong seem to dissolve, there must be strong, Giving honest and free spirits who remind people of universally valid values in the face of atrocities that have already been committed and those yet to be committed, in order to finally break the vicious circle of violence. "
Web links
- High Ground in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- High Ground in the program of the Berlin Film Festival
- High Ground - Press Conference of the Berlin Film Festival (Video)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d High Ground. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ↑ a b c Wendy Ide: 'High Ground': Berlin Review. In: screendaily.com, February 23, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d Stephen Dalton: 'High Ground': Film Review. In: The Hollywood Reporter, February 23, 2020.
- ^ A b Guy Lodge: 'High Ground': Film Review. In: Variety, February 23, 2020.
- ↑ https://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/festivals/2020/08/17/first-taste-of-the-2020-adelaide-film-festival-program/
- ↑ Kalle Somnitz, Silvia Bahl, Nathanael Brohammer and Anne Wotschke: Berlinale 2020. In: programmkino.de. Retrieved March 13, 2020 (PDF; 177 KB)