Review of Utopia (2013) by Jj M — 18 Feb 2014

It has been an arduos journey for this film to even get shown in the country it is holding accountable for all the horrific ordeals that it depicts. Indeed that goes without saying - it's Australia's dirty laundry after all and there is an all-too-familar stench of suppression/embarrassment of the past amoung the ordinary people in the street in this country.

Apathy you may think has alot to blame for the problems in Aboriginal Australia but as this film exposes there is something more malicious at play. There is plenty that will stand out in this brilliant, hard-hitting and honest report on the modern-day plight of the most enduring human entities on this planet, but the one phrase that stuck with me was 'rack 'em and stack 'em'.

The phrase was used by a government official responsible for the prisons in Western Australia (the vast majority of which are Aboriginal people, usually arrested for alcohol-related incidents). Many of the stories are moving but for the most part, they are disturbing.

People will say that it is just an ex-pat trying to convince people from outside of Australia that the whole country is racist. I've been in this country and have worked closely with Aboriginal people for nearly three years and it is hard for me to argue with that.

Pilger could not secure a release for the documentary in Australia, so he had to get it shown somewhere other than here. The London Film Review rated it as one of the best films of 2013. Although it is only now getting a 'tour' around the cities of Australia, you know very well it will get very little publicity if Murdoch has anything to do with it.

Sure is it not an affront to the white supremicists governing this country. It maybe that (it's supposed to be!) but it is also an extremely important indication to the people around the world who may have seen The Secret Country back in 1986, that nothing much has really changed.

No 'limp 'sorrys' will ever change anything. Throwing money at it won't change anything either. People here still live in poverty and are treated as outsiders in their own country. That's the fucking problem.

The mining boom has capitulated the whole situation into freefall. Heritage is increasingly destroyed and links to their incredible past is being dissolved at an alarming rate. Aussie pride mate, aussie bloody pride!