THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS
****
Director: Rolf de Heer
Screenplay: Rolf de Heer
Principal cast:
Mwajemi Hussein
Deepthi Sharma
Darsan Sharma
Gary Waddell
Natasha Wanganeen
Noel Wilton
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 110 mins.
Australian release date: 4 May 2023.
Some film directors are content to work within one particular genre, honing their skill in that category and staying close to the style they’ve grown comfortable with, but you could never say that Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer was one of them. He constantly seems to be stretching himself, always searching for new ways to tell a story; there may be themes he returns to, but never styles. You can’t really join the dots from Incident at Raven’s Gate to Alexandra’s Project or Bad Boy Bubby to Dr. Plonk, The Quiet Room to Ten Canoes, Dance Me to My Song to The King Is Dead! or The Old Man Who Read Love Stories to Charlie’s Country. Now, with his latest work, de Heer has done it again and created a film unlike any other in his oeuvre - The Survival of Kindness is one of the most unique movies you will see in this or any other year. The director/writer said, “I had never written a script like this. It was a film that demanded to be done differently.” And different it is. It’s like a fever dream combining Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
BlackWoman (an amazing debut performance from Mwajemi Hussein) is a prisoner when we first see her. We know from a shocking earlier scene that some sort of environmental disaster has taken place because we have seen gasmask-wearing white-skinned people celebrating the deaths of Indigenous people, although we don’t know the why or the how of this event because the gasmasks make their speech unintelligible. Indeed, the entire film is without meaningful dialogue, leaving the viewer to his or her own imagination about what has occurred. We do know, however, that BlackWoman is a prisoner who has been left in a cage in the desert to die. But BlackWoman is resourceful and not ready to go yet and thus she begins an epic odyssey, constantly changing shoes and boots with others she encounters, both living and dead, as she treks ever forward, from desert to forest, canyon to mountain and, ultimately, to a city.
The Survival of Kindness is infused with intimations of the COVID-19 pandemic, both by what’s on screen and in how the film was made. De Heer had originally envisaged a much broader canvas for the story he had in mind with a much bigger budget at his disposal but the virus put an end to that scenario. Accordingly, he decided to shoot a scaled-down version with an equally scaled-down team, ending up with an on-set crew of just 12 people, many of whom were Indigenous, young and new to feature film making. De Heer felt that, “this was the right film to give opportunities to new people, to inexperienced people, because with some extra mentoring we could provide, I felt that the chances of them failing whilst attempting a significant step up was very low, and to avoid failure was as important as offering the job in the first place.” The experiment worked and their combined efforts have created a stunning piece of cinema of which the cinematography of Maxx Corkindale (who shot My Name Is Gulpilil) is a highlight. Congolese/Australian actor Hussein delivers a compelling performance, made all the more incredible when you learn that she had never been in a cinema, let alone acted in a film, prior to working on The Survival of Kindness.
De Heer’s film is not easy and won’t be to everyone’s taste but anyone interested in pure cinema should run to catch it. As an examination of the impact of colonisation on Australia’s first peoples, this is about as raw and enigmatic as you’re ever likely to see. It’s elegiac, almost mythic, and only a director as brave and as bold as de Heer could have made it.
Screenplay: Rolf de Heer
Principal cast:
Mwajemi Hussein
Deepthi Sharma
Darsan Sharma
Gary Waddell
Natasha Wanganeen
Noel Wilton
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 110 mins.
Australian release date: 4 May 2023.
Some film directors are content to work within one particular genre, honing their skill in that category and staying close to the style they’ve grown comfortable with, but you could never say that Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer was one of them. He constantly seems to be stretching himself, always searching for new ways to tell a story; there may be themes he returns to, but never styles. You can’t really join the dots from Incident at Raven’s Gate to Alexandra’s Project or Bad Boy Bubby to Dr. Plonk, The Quiet Room to Ten Canoes, Dance Me to My Song to The King Is Dead! or The Old Man Who Read Love Stories to Charlie’s Country. Now, with his latest work, de Heer has done it again and created a film unlike any other in his oeuvre - The Survival of Kindness is one of the most unique movies you will see in this or any other year. The director/writer said, “I had never written a script like this. It was a film that demanded to be done differently.” And different it is. It’s like a fever dream combining Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
BlackWoman (an amazing debut performance from Mwajemi Hussein) is a prisoner when we first see her. We know from a shocking earlier scene that some sort of environmental disaster has taken place because we have seen gasmask-wearing white-skinned people celebrating the deaths of Indigenous people, although we don’t know the why or the how of this event because the gasmasks make their speech unintelligible. Indeed, the entire film is without meaningful dialogue, leaving the viewer to his or her own imagination about what has occurred. We do know, however, that BlackWoman is a prisoner who has been left in a cage in the desert to die. But BlackWoman is resourceful and not ready to go yet and thus she begins an epic odyssey, constantly changing shoes and boots with others she encounters, both living and dead, as she treks ever forward, from desert to forest, canyon to mountain and, ultimately, to a city.
The Survival of Kindness is infused with intimations of the COVID-19 pandemic, both by what’s on screen and in how the film was made. De Heer had originally envisaged a much broader canvas for the story he had in mind with a much bigger budget at his disposal but the virus put an end to that scenario. Accordingly, he decided to shoot a scaled-down version with an equally scaled-down team, ending up with an on-set crew of just 12 people, many of whom were Indigenous, young and new to feature film making. De Heer felt that, “this was the right film to give opportunities to new people, to inexperienced people, because with some extra mentoring we could provide, I felt that the chances of them failing whilst attempting a significant step up was very low, and to avoid failure was as important as offering the job in the first place.” The experiment worked and their combined efforts have created a stunning piece of cinema of which the cinematography of Maxx Corkindale (who shot My Name Is Gulpilil) is a highlight. Congolese/Australian actor Hussein delivers a compelling performance, made all the more incredible when you learn that she had never been in a cinema, let alone acted in a film, prior to working on The Survival of Kindness.
De Heer’s film is not easy and won’t be to everyone’s taste but anyone interested in pure cinema should run to catch it. As an examination of the impact of colonisation on Australia’s first peoples, this is about as raw and enigmatic as you’re ever likely to see. It’s elegiac, almost mythic, and only a director as brave and as bold as de Heer could have made it.
