Review of Beneath Clouds (2002) by D W — 05 Feb 2007
The simple ideas are the best: a film about a boy and a girl walking along a road can speak more purely than a cashed-up film can. "Beneath Clouds" is a low budget Australian film that has a devestatingly simple concept and a devestating impact.
Two teenagers-Aboriginal prison-escapee Vaughn trying to reach his dying mother and half-Aboriginal Lena who is searching for her Irish father- cross paths along a highway in rural NSW. They walk along together, sometimes hitching rides, sometimes talking, sometimes silent on the road to Sydney. The surrounding landscape is all-encompassing. In its cliffs and gumtrees can be read memories of the brutal past- of Aborigines being pushed off cliffs by white settlers. Cornfields tell the story of these settlers and whisper the fate of the land.
Thefilm moves at a reflective pace but this means that it's scope is vast. More can be read in these fluid images of the abstract Australian landscape than in icon-plagued media-saturated Sydney.
This review of Beneath Clouds (2002) was written by D W on 05 Feb 2007.
Beneath Clouds has generally received positive reviews.
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