The Black Balloon

Samson and Delilah, an Australian movie

This is not an enjoyable film, but it is excellent. Immediately after watching Samson and Delilah, I thought it was awful. Exactly because I thought it was awful, a week later I’m convinced it’s brilliant. There are many different types of films. Some are immensely entertaining, but immediately forgettable. Like Avatar. Others stick with you, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t, because they show you a truth about the world that you wish wasn’t so spot on. Samson and Delilah is based around the real-life experiences of director Warwick Thornton and present a part of Australia that most people, myself included, suspected existed, but really wish it didn’t. Now, what the hell do we do about it?

Balibo: Australian documentary about East Timor

For a small country so close to Australia, so many of us know way too little about East Timor. Balibo makes it clear that the small nation was invaded by the Indonesians over thirty years ago, while Australia let it happen. This well paced, passionately acted portrayal of the events centres around the death of five young Australian journalists. Experienced Australian journalist Roger East tries to find out what happened to them, with the help of Jose Ramos Horta, who is still a pertinent figure in East Timorese politics. Anthony Lapaglia gives a spirited performance as East, who at one point comments, “Thousand of little brown people die; nobody back home (in Australia) is going to care. But five Australian journalists are killed and that’s front page news.” Which helps explain why their deaths were kept covered up for three decades. [read about more Australian pop culture at The Colour]

Sarah Watt’s My Year Without Sex trailer

An Australian film that focuses on the hardships suffered by a typical lower-class family. I can feel you cringe, but there’s no need. This isn’t another clanger that relies on clichés and lame jokes, that portrays average Australians as simple and backward. Here are intelligent, warm, loving people struggling with a series of hardships with individuality, honesty and strength. Read more

Precious

A film about a horrendously obese girl who has two kids, with Mariah Carey in it and produced by Oprah. Sounds awful and at first, I couldn’t be less interested, but it turns out, I couldn’t be more mistaken. Based on the novel Push, it’s a tight and intelligent script realised by dedicated actors and exquisite direction. Read more

Besh o droM tour Australia

‘Most bands that play traditional music, do it in a traditional way. What’s interesting for us it to keep it fresh and make it a living tradition,’ said Gergely Barcza of Hungarian gypsy-fusion band Besh o droM. Formed in Budapest in 1999, the name translates as ‘ride the road’, which they’ve done with performances at festivals all over Europe, Asia and soon for the first time, in Australia. ‘When we started, I never thought the music would travel so far, and take us all to so many different places.’ Read more

Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo)

Often a film revolves a major action or series of events, while at the centre of the Italian film Quiet Chaos, is a mammoth but not uncomfortable hole. When a TV executive’s wife suddenly dies, he takes to spending his days outside his daughters school, but instead of his life falling apart, his friends and relatives come to console him, and faced with his calm, they end up revealing their own difficulties. Read more