Screened as part of NZIFF 2014

The Darkside 2013

Directed by Warwick Thornton

Samson & Delilah director Warwick Thornton invited Aboriginal people to share their experiences of the supernatural – and selected 13 of the most potent to be brought back to life by actors in this film.

94 minutes CinemaScope / DCP

Director, Photography

Producer

Kath Shelper

Editor

Roland Gallois

Production/ Costume designer

Annie Beauchamp

With

Lynette Narkle
,
Merwez Whaleboat
,
Sacha Horler
,
Jack Charles
,
Deborah Mailman
,
Bryan Brown
,
Claudia Karvan
,
Aaron Pederson
,
Shari Sebbens

Festivals

Adelaide 2013; Berlin 2014

Elsewhere

‘Seen a ghost? Know someone who has? Had a weird experience that you can’t explain? We want to hear from you.’ In 2012 Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah) and producer Kath Shelper put out a call in Australian indigenous media for people to share their personal experiences of the uncanny. From the many responses, a select 13 were interviewed and their stories transcribed to be recounted by actors in this film. Each storyteller is framed by Thornton with his distinctive, gracious eye for social realism. Beautifully acted, these eerie tales function as the vanguard for a continuing online/broadcast project to gather more tales from Aboriginal communities. Thornton says he was struck by how many of the stories focused on family and kinship. An audience more at ease with ravenous zombies may be equally struck by the benign nature of so many of the visitations that made it into the film.

“Warwick Thornton’s collection of spiritually themed vignettes is alternately unsettling, poignant and slyly funny... The cumulative effect is seductive and evocative: radio with pictures. And beautiful pictures they are.” — Eddie Cockrell, Variety