Van Diemen’s Land

First thought? Beautiful. At first the film processing technique was jarring, and I suspect we also had a slightly faulty projector, but the quality of the imagery still engaged. The colours were a bit strange, but part of that was involved in the filmmaking, an aesthetic choice by director Jonathan auf der Heide and cinematographer Ellery Ryan.

The film was enrapturing, both visually and emotionally engaging. The characters were all enigmatic, despite their open discourse. There was not a cliché among them, so full was their conception. They were presented clearly as the men they could well have been. Their history, we can assume, they already discussed during their time in incarceration and so is not repeated in the film’s dialogue. This way, the filmmakers avoid that awful tendency of so many, of characters telling one another their history for the audience’s benefit. These men were stripped of their past when they were brought to Australia as convicts for, largely, minor transgressions. Their existence, in this way, was limited to within the frame.

The locations were as haunting as they were arresting. Particularly among the snow gums, a ghost wood. Each location was used to represent the mindset and moods of the characters. When all of them wandered through the bush near the beginning of their journey, there was an oppressiveness in the wet, dark bush. When they were recuperating by a waterfall, the tone was more jovial and hopeful. Towards the end, at the point of madness, the vast field represented well the void of humanity in the two remaining characters.

The story unveiled slowly, which I felt was perfect. It made the acts of violence more malevolent and looming. The deaths were messy and gritty, conveying the terror of what they had come to. The first kill was, I thought, particularly well disguised. The film lay heavy emphasis on the old man who was struggling with the terrain. The other young men were full of energy, and at each hill one of them would help him up. There was appropriate tension between the Irish and Scottish boys and the two English men. All this is laid on to put suspicions in your mind of who their first sacrifice will be.

One of the central characters, a charismatic young man Dalton, injures his leg. He is seen dressing it with his friend, Alexander Pearce (an incredible performance by Oscar Redding), by a waterfall pool in which they all swam and bathed. They discuss things quietly between them, almost conspiratorially. An excellent element of this film was the use of the Gaelic language. This put a barrier, or a safety net, between characters depending on its use. It also showed the committment of the cast, many of whom had learned the language for this film.

A short while later, further in their trek, men were seen discussing their lack of food. Their options were wearing thin (excuse the pun) and with two stragglers they came to the gruesome conclusion. This decided, they pressed on up the steep, hard hill. Pearce helps Dalton, and another man helps the old man.

The next morning, Pearce opens his eyes to feet and an axe, approaching a huddled, sleeping form. Chaos ensues and Dalton dies bloody and gasping, in a twitching mess, still aware of his friends around him and what they had done. The scene was tense and horrific, and the untidy bleeding and hinted carving ended the scene darkly.

Fear, anger and shock burn amongst the characters. The Englishman Robert Greenhill (seemingly self-appointed, would-be leader) knuckles down coldly to the task and the next morning they head on.

From here to the end the killings get swifter but no less delicate. By the end of the film the tension and distrust are so thick between the characters that the film puts the audience on edge as well. Jonathan auf der Heide also treated the growing madness and sickness of the characters very subtly. Though there is not medical link between cannibalism and the often associated traits of insanity and illness, there is still some truth to it. These men would have been driven mad by their recent past, if nothing else, and while they still ate human flesh they would have been malnourished for lack of nutritional variety. Makeup was harsh, and no doubt their surrounds helped, giving the characters a fiendishly ill look to them. A single shot of a character drawing a handful of hair from his scalp (very good makeup) is all he uses to show the balding, which can then be seen in the other characters.

I found this film compelling, and am not surprised that this young film student made such a beautiful film, he is obviously a very talented filmmaker.

Van Diemen’s Land [2009]