Liz,

Having read your persuasive piece, and on the recommendation of many of the unthused people who have gone to see this film, this is an obvious Must See.

An organic film about indigenous Aboriginal society, minus all the media hype, pent up guilt and hyperbole, is a rare opportunity.

So thanks.

I've been to see it and I think it is a fine film. Not just me, it won the special jury prize at Cannes. Funny, sad, shocking and beautifully filmed using non-actors in a magnificent setting. David Gulpillil's narration is very well-wrought. Be warned however, the pace is slow and the storytelling a bit eliptical.

Interesting that Liz Connor refers to the anthropological photographs of Donald Thomson. Many of the locals refer to the 1930s as "Thomson Time"- a bit like Dream Time, but a past recorded in Thomson's black and white photos. De Heer and his cast bring some of these photos to life. It reminds me of the way that Eddie Mabo was fascinated by the report of the 1890s Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Strait and the way it documented a vanished way of life in the Torres Strait.

Perhaps this film can serve as a reminder for the naysayers that there is much of sustance and worth in indigenous culture. However don't go along expecting the usual Hollywood fare of jump-cuts and explosions. Then again, that's probably not a bad hing.

It has been advertised on TV, as though it is on now not with an opening date in the near future. But it isn’t on anywhere…. in this far north Qld backwater.

I have been hanging out to see it.

Completely different to Rabbit Proof Fence by all indications…. which I thought was an absolute gem (commonality only in that they both have an aboriginal theme, although very different….and share David Gullpillil).

I liked it. Mostly set in the dream time and not a euro to be seen, it just shows that traditional life is just the same is ours (albeit with different technology). Gluttony, lust, fart jokes, men competing for women, women competing for men, boys wanting to grow up too quickly, all set against the indigenous equivalent of the king Midas legend.

A wonderful insight into pre-European contact culture. Not a story of special circumstances, but one of the normality of their lives. Slow moving, but that’s fine. Gives you the chance to fully absorb the detail.

And twice as special for me, as a devoted botanist and birdo, to see so much so familiar: from the wonderful Corypha palm swamps to the Darwin stringybark forests from where the bark canoes were cut, and from the enormous magpie goose flocks on the wetlands to the call of blue-winged kookaburras, lemon-bellied flycatchers and many other birds.

Entirely natural settings…. except for a couple of weed species that wouldn’t have been around in pre-contact times – Calopogonium and Hyptis.

But absolutely excellent.