Recently I viewed a very interesting Australian based film named 'The Tracker' directed and written by Rolf De Heer. It features well known Australian actors, especially the well known Indigenous actor David Gulpilil (who I think does a brilliant job!). It follows the story of an Indigenous Australian employed by white authorities to track down a fellow Aboriginie who has been accused of murder. It shows some outstanding scenes of Australia's natural outback around the South Australian Flinders Ranges and the cunning ways the man tracks down the accused.
Through this film it made the segregation that was occuring during the early 20th century, between White society and the Indigenous society to be quite fierce. The way David Gulpilil portrays the Tracker to be a surpressed man in his own land as he calls the authorities 'boss' and abides to their every requirement, even when it reaches the point where he is chained up like a prisoner.



The film shows violent scenes of Indigenous Australians being abused, taunted, shot and hung up as spectacles and all the while the Tracker sits by quitely wittnessing these horrible acts. The police describe it as it is "the benefit for the country". It is sad, as the tracker describes at one point; "poor black fella, he been born for that noose" which was quite true in those days.
Throughout the film it flashes in key sections to traditional Indigenous paintings portraying the happenings of the storyline. It links the viewer back to the story in the same traditional way the Aborigines keep their stories alive - through their art. The images are attractive incorporating the scenes in their original techniques.
I won't let you in on the end of the story, but it has a rather exciting twist so I highly recommend it!