Review of Samson and Delilah (2009) by Me W — 12 Jun 2009

Masterpiece. A portrayl of two average teenage indigenous Australians living on a reservation, and the lack of hope they confront daily. Delilah is particularly attractive for her sense of duty and resilience, but is beaten into the void by her own community and her tragic encounter with low-life criminal rapists. There is no hope is the reality, but so confronting is the truth that a false, transluscent ending is created to enable us to stand and walk out of the cinema and resume some kind of normal life afterwards. If the credits had rolled while under the bridge, before the second coming, the mental impact would have been too overwhelming.

This film is a masterpiece. The cinematography, the casting and the reality of what we are allowed to see, is as brutal an essay as could ever be written. The deliberate lack of dialogue enhances the vision and the silence.

So bleak is my view that I now see death as the only viable alternative to a life of hopless despair and violence. What is there to live for? Emphasis on the dreamtime and spiritworld, give credence to the afterlife but more importantly hope of a better time ahead.

We are watching a silent genocide, and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. It is happening, it is real and we are all party to it.