goldstone ( film )
goldstone is thrilling. goldstone is moving. goldstone is unforgettable. ivan sen and aaron pedersen’s jay swan are the indigenous cinematic heroes we deserve .
a full house greeted the vision splendid film festival organisers on opening night, when goldstone was premiered .
goldstone movie review: the battleground for australia' s soul | daily review: film, stage and music reviews, interviews and more .
alex russell as the straight - as - a - die cop in goldstone .
‘a gorgeous film to watch, but a better one to think about’: aaron pedersen and alex russell in ivan sen’s goldstone. photograph: transmission films
an improvement on the first film in a number of ways and the first film was a nice bit of work in itself, but this one moves along better and is generally a tighter film all around .
although it has a sporting theme, the heath davis - directed movie was more about what happens to sports stars when the cheering ends and was voted best film at the kiwi international film festival and las vegas independent film festival .
indigenous detective jay swan arrives in the frontier mining town of “goldstone” on a missing persons enquiry .
greg dolgopolov quizzes renowned australian film maker ivan sen at breakfast with the stars .
in 2011 ivan completed his feature toomelah, which was selected for the cannes international film festival 2011 – un certain regard. the world premiere of the film at cannes received a standing ovation. the film won the grand prix at the pacific meridian film festival 2011 and the unesco prize at the asia pacific screen awards 2011 .
goldstone is a bunya productions film in association with screen queensland and screen australia. it will be distributed in australia and new zealand by transmission films, with international sales by arclight films .
throughout the late 1990s ivan sen worked on numerous short films, before making his feature film debut with beneath clouds in 2002. it won ivan global acclaim, screening at the 2003 sundance film festival and winning the premiere first movie award at the 2002 berlin film festival and the 2002 best director award at the australian film institute awards .
in 2008 ivan commenced production on his experimental second feature dreamland. it screened in competition at the 2010 busan film festival in south korea and in the brisbane and melbourne film festivals .
it’s a gorgeous film to watch, but a better and bigger one to think about. the key to unlocking this hugely ambitious genre hybrid – a classic australian film and a masterpiece of outback noir – is understanding that goldstone is a country, not a town, and its name is australia .
the open - air royal theatre, nearly unique in australian movie folklore, was packed out on friday when the latest film to be shot around winton, goldstone, was screened for the festival’s opening night .
qut bachelor of entertainment students nicole pinto and rhiannon cooper worked as interns at the film festival .
ivan sen' s goldstone has many similarities with his earlier film, mystery road, including crime, racism and long - range shootouts. but the strongest theme of all - - in both films - - is hopelessness .
i was originally annoyed with how obvious the script is. i was won over. i loved how goldstone somehow, or purposely, might be the a near complete australian film. those birds eye view shots! ! !
the film was shot under challenging conditions in the outback western queensland settlement of middleton, population three .
aaron pedersen (left) and david gulpilil in outback thriller goldstone, ivan sen' s follow - up to mystery road .
vision splendid festival artistic director greg dolgopolov and longreach' s nicole bond share their thoughts on goldstone after the opening night screening .
the commodity of truth is the intangible element pursued throughout - as bullets fly, dollars exchange hands and expectations are realised. the personal resolutions are the most effective and sen uses aerial shots to offer different perspectives - as well as to accentuate the isolation and vast nature of the setting. the best thing about the film is the mood, which resonates throughout; sen' s stamp is firmly all over the film, as director, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and composer. goldstone was the opening night film at the 2016 sydney film festival .
image as method: ethnography – photography – film – sensation – perception
is a two - day symposia presented by the society of fellows in the humanities. the symposia is organized by fellow brian goldstone, lecturer in anthropology .
ivan sen directed mystery road and goldstone at winton and was made a member of winton' s walk of fame during the festival .
it' s like this film was written with a checklist of film noir narrative - wise, but everything is so heavy - handed and half baked. there was no mystery, every turn had been explained before it…
the sun is hot, the motives are cold and the film is blazingly noir as indigenous detective jay swan (aaron pedersen) returns for another investigation of outback moral rot in multi - hyphenate helmer ivan sen’s socially conscious, supremely accomplished procedural thriller “goldstone. ” a standalone sequel to his breakthrough “mystery road” (which opened the sydney film festival [ … ]
keeping bar patrons happy at the vision splendid film festival opening night after party were keisha peachey and kate moran .
later this week audiences will be able to view outback horror film red billabong before its national screening in august .
in the magnificent, big - thinking goldstone, which played opening night at this year’s sydney film festival, writer / director ivan sen combines two genres we never really had, to make one film no australian should miss. it is a “spiritual sequel” to 2013’s mystery road, meaning the protagonist is the same but it works perfectly fine as a stand - alone story .
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happy winton faces at the film festival opening night were lorraine entriken, paul nelson, sash whitehead and lyn fraser .
in 2015 ivan directed his latest feature goldstone starring aaron pedersen, alex russell, jacki weaver, david gulpilil, cheng pei pei and david wenham .
indigenous detective jay swan arrives in the frontier town of goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. what seems like a simple light duty investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop josh, so together they can bring justice to goldstone .
main roads minister mark bailey, pictured with staff kate griffiths and anna jabour, represented premier annastacia palaszczuk at the film festival .
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don' t they' s 1000 greatest films. this…
sen writes, directs, edits, photographs and scores his films, imbuing the tech package with a vision at once accessible and tangibly personal. adding to the symbiotic nature of the package is the return of the principal production crew from the first film. “goldstone” is nothing if not a focused, unified piece .
as tough and grizzled as a young humphrey bogart, aaron pedersen excels in the role of swan, adding the right dash of devil - may - care insouciance to the part, while sen surrounds him with a wild assortment of baddies to flesh out his film, turning goldstone into a piece of intelligent and provocative entertainment .
beautiful and engrossing, goldstone is classic noir set against the dusty backdrop of the australian outback. a selection at the 2017 seattle international film festival (siff), the thriller features a strong cast of characters and intense bursts of violence, even if its plot is ultimately less sophisticated than you’d hope. full movie review »
synopsis: indigenous detective jay swan (aaron pedersen) arrives in the frontier town of goldstone on a missing persons enquiry. what seems like a simple light duties investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop josh (alex russell), so together they can bring justice to goldstone .
goldstone is an australian outback western noir. it' s the sequel to mystery road. and, once again, another adventure in the life of jay, played by aaron pedersen .
the scales eventually fall from the young cop’s eyes, and he joins forces with swan in a shootout that, like so much in goldstone, mimics a similar moment in mystery road. the white sidekick here is a more central character than hugo weaving was in the first film, but this time he’s not the one doing the saving. josh’s awakening is triggered by may (michelle lim davidson), a chinese girl whose ambiguous relationship to the young cop makes for some of the film’s most delicate passages .
reviewed at sony pictures theatrette, sydney, australia, may 17, 2016. (in sydney film festival — opener .) running time: 109 min .
ivan has subsequently written and produced a number of award winning documentaries. his documentary yellow fella screened in un certain regard at the cannes film festival in 2005 .
indigenous detective jay swan arrives in the frontier town of goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. what seems like a simple light duty investigation opens a web of crime and corruption... . see full summary »
inema itself began with the western: 1903’s the great train robbery, which most scholars believe to be the first film to tell a fictitious story. but although australia has no shortage of rugged outdoors people and harsh picturesque terrain, australian cinema never had an equivalent style of film - making. the closest we’ve come is western - ish productions such as
saw the movie today and was totally impressed with the acting and the scenery. i would like to know the name of the gorge in the film. great australian movie .
keep your comments focused on the film. don' t post randomness / off - topic comments. jokes are fine, but don' t post tactless / inappropriate ones .
this film is not good. in fact, it' s really, really bad. i' ve read various glowing reviews of it and i simply cannot fathom it .
he’s in even worse shape in goldstone, sullenly monosyllabic and heavily off the wagon. the first time we meet him, he’s getting pulled over and thrown in the tank by josh (chronicle ’s alex russell), the only policeman in goldstone, an outback town that consists of the local mine, the pub, the police station, the mayor’s office and the local aboriginal community, none less than a drive away from each other .
mr bailey said winton, which has taken on the nickname of hollywood of the outback, was now an important part of the film world, something it should be proud of .
what elevates goldstone above its genre roots is sen' s assured direction and his uncanny ability to set the right tone, strike the right notes, and not just have fun with his material but also deal with key issues .
it is again directed by ivan sen, and produced by david jowsey and greer simpkin, through bunya productions. the production will return to winton in queensland state and see the construction of a goldstone town in middleton, queensland .
it' s an effective, engaging film, avoiding the expected resolutions for a more authentic result, while engaging us in the issues of how we live together in this old land .
all the way from boulia to enjoy the film festival were bec britton and her boys, jake, zack, beau and jase, catching up with festival public relations consultant krista hauritz .
loved the camera work and overall feel of the film. i thought the jacki weaver and david wenham characters were a bit comic book shallow. best acting award goes to the queensland outback .
goldstone belongs to a suite of australian films that contemplate land ownership in memorable ways, from 1932’s on our selection to 1950’s bitter springs and even 1997’s the castle. but it has more weight than any of them, because the film’s spiritual roots hark back to the traditional owners of the land. in a small but moving role david gulpilil plays a man who cannot be bought; his soul is connected to the ground and the sky .
in 2013 ivan completed mystery road starring aaron pedersen, hugo weaving, ryan kwanten, tasma walton and jack thompson. mystery road had its international premiere with a “special presentation”at the 2013 toronto film festival .
the film opens with a shot of the wide, expansive outback, a thin road runs through jagged, rocky, dry land, the red dust painting the yellow and brown dirt, but it just looks dull. everything looks dull, random drone - shots inexplicably punctuate the film for about three seconds, any shot that could have some impact it robbed by the editing which feels frenetic and messy .
indigenous detective jay swan arrives in the frontier mining town of “goldstone” on a missing persons enquiry. what seems like a simple “light duties” investigation soon opens into a web of crime and corruption implicating the local mayor, mining boss and aboriginal land council .
goldstone is a sequel to mystery road, and one of the reasons why i even watched mystery road in a first place. i mean, i was planing to watch mystery road, eventually. but i really liked the trailer for goldstone and wanted to watch it soon then later, and since it was a sequel to mystery road, i naturally watched that one first. although, with the exception of the main character and similar tone, these two movies are not really connected in any other way. well... same as mystery road, goldstone is another atmospheric and dirty australian noir - western thriller about the people from dry and desolate australian outback, place where the time has stopped. this time, indigenous detective jay swan arrives…
as well as being able to watch goldstone, starring aaron pedersen as indigenous detective jay swan, which was largely filmed around the tiny town of middleton, west of winton, audiences were treated to the gladstone - filmed rugby league movie, broke .
movies highlighting corrupt mining practices and rugby league players tossed on the scrap heap – both talking points in australian society today – played to rapturous audiences at the third annual vision splendid film festival at winton on the weekend .
there were plenty of people on hand to celebrate the opening night of the vision splendid film festival, including vivienne johnson, trevor love, festival director mark melrose, member for mount isa rob katter and daisy hatfield .
local mp rob katter was also present on the opening night, saying winton’s welcoming ways were a large part of the reason the film industry was attracted to the region and contributing to the success of the fledgling festival .
faults and all, goldstone dramatises some unpalatable themes with power and clarity, and seems likely to be remembered as one of the key australian films of its era. perhaps swan' s next adventure should take the form of a tv miniseries along the lines of jane campion' s top of the lake (which goldstone resembles in some respects, and not just because both co - star wenham). this would allow sen to use an ensemble cast to its full potential and explore his themes in a more detailed, less diagrammatic way .
ivan sen’s 2013 feature mystery road introduced jay swan, an aboriginal detective investigating the murder of an aboriginal girl found with her throat slit on the side of a highway. returning to his hometown after a stint in the city, swan was side - eyed by the locals and patronized by his white colleagues, but still managed to clean house. the director returns to that time - honored set - up in goldstone, opening this year’s sydney film festival, though his hero is barely recognizable .
by the end of the weekend, attendance numbers at winton’s vision splendid third annual film festival were 35 per cent up on last year’s figures, confirming for organisers and backers that they were building a well - recognised brand .
in the series to date there are constant references to wild dogs on the fringes of the town in mystery road and goldstone. where the dogs added another layer to the enigma of mystery road, it feels as if pedersen’s jay has become the embodiment of that wild dog .
pedersen’s swan is impossibly good. it’s almost hard to even reconcile how we are looking at the same character from mystery road because he is so different in the opening stanzas of the film. once you get a sense of what has happened between mystery road and goldstone you begin to fathom his actions as misguided coping mechanisms. it’s a sensation, it’s heartbreaking, it’s subtle, it’s engrossing. you’re hanging on every gesture, on every word, on every movement, and sen’s lens is a sponge .
indeed, goldstone the town makes dungatar, in last year' s the dressmaker, look like an attractive holiday destination. it' s hardly a town at all, just a collection of demountables and shacks, filmed by sen in wide shots that emphasise their isolation in the landscape .
two - time oscar nominated actress jacki weaver has joined the cast of “ goldstone, ” an australian outback thriller that shoots later this month. the picture is a follow up to 2013 picture “mystery road, ” that opened the sydney festival and played at the toronto festival the same year .
ivan sen’s goldstone is impossible to shake. from the first minute, the amazing, blaring score (composed by sen – damned impressive overachiever that he is) comes at you with images layered across the screen from the 1800s australian gold rush era. the pictures, filled with the hardened faces of those extracting “the colour” from the earth, are evidence of post - colonial exploitation. aboriginals “civilised” in western clothing; chinese migrants being used as cheap labour. the red dirt blankets the foundations of modern australian civilisation: gold, exploitation and invasion. goldstone is the battleground for australia’s soul .
ivan sen shoots goldstone exquisitely. the epic landscape that dwarfs you; you can’t help but feel like there is an eternity between locations; like the cars are just insects stirring up these dirt corridors. he shoots so meticulously, emphasising the scope and isolation, and at no point in this desolate wasteland do you feel like it’s not alive. every frame is just rippling with something and you can’t help but feel like the dust has settled over the past. stirring up that dust is uncovering not only the seedy underbelly of what is actually happening in goldstone but what is happening in contemporary australia .
swan visits goldstone to track down the whereabouts of a missing young chinese woman. in the first scene he is behind the wheel and pissed as a fart. the horse swan rides into town on is the back of a divvy van, after being apprehended by young local cop josh (alex russell) .
goldstone opens with a series of 19th century photographs from rural australia which show the tripartite racial structure of the time. one of those racial groups is chinese (in magnificent cultural dress replete with hair in single plaid to the waist) so they were likely taken during the goldrush. ivan sen moves his camera over and into the photos, bringing them to life with extra dimension as we see the faces of its white miners and blackfella lackies, their aboriginal children dressed uncomfortably in victorian vestments whilst asian faces look out from the shopfronts and doorways of their laundries and boarding houses. it' s a haunting prefiguration of the three cultural forces at play as goldstone settles into its contemporary setting. …
two - time oscar nominated actress jacki weaver has joined the cast of “goldstone, ” an australian outback thriller that shoots later this month. the picture is a follow up to 2013 picture “mystery road, ” that opened the sydney festival and played at the toronto festival the same year. it is again directed by ivan sen, and produced [ … ]
people change but the system remains more or less the same, sen seems to be saying. but in that “less” there is something special, even sacred: the bit in life that says there’s something worth fighting for. what a lot to think about; what a hell of a film .
sen’s cinematography (in addition to writing and directing his films he also shoots, edits, scores and sometimes produces them) avoids the kind of orange - baked, hot, gluggy glaze popularised after 1971’s wake in fright. goldstone’s colour grading is sharp and crisp, its visual makeup – replete with seamlessly integrated aerial drone footage – grandiose, but wired in small details .
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there' s deep social commentary in goldstone. mainly, focusing on the treatment of the aboriginal people. greed and the desire for power at all cost are other themes, too. i love how jay is an aboriginal policeman. you know, a black man in a white man' s world. we also have a white cop, and his moral code is put…
the story twines together the themes of exploitation versus care, of corruption versus honesty and of the past versus the present. indeed, the film begins with a montage of archival black and white photos from goldfields in the 19th century, featuring aborigines, asians and whites, to frame the story within the reach of the past .
spot on. not since “wake in fright” has a film so powerfully captured a key part of the underbelly of the australian psyche and combined it with such a strong sense of place. . pedersen’s return to his “country” is a brilliant counterpoint to the outback oz culture depicted. all this and a well told great yarn as well !
on second watch the flaws stand out more - editing that never lets a shot breathe and the, i don' t know how to say it, the inaccessibility of the lead? can' t imagine what it' s like without having seen the first film and got a sense of the man. maybe it works better ?
after an effective sequence comprising sepier snapshots depicting the early life of the mining pioneer, the film hones in on the isolation of the setting: an evocative canvass of pink, ochre, taupe and dune. there is nothing romantic or ethereal however, in the way josh (alex russell), the young local cop pursues the speeding vehicle with its intoxicated driver, detective jay swan (pedersen). this is the film' s central relationship in which two flawed individuals struggle to find themselves. josh is sinking deeper and deeper into the corruption of big business in the goldmines, while jay becomes drawn to finding a connection with his aboriginal roots and his spiritual side .
i agree totally. saw it at the sydney film festival and it was my favourite. beautifully written, shot and directed. exciting, funny, always compelling and ultimately incredibly moving. and extraordinary acting all round. weaver is fabulous and pedersen is a revelation (i doubt we will see better performances anywhere this year) but the whole cast is wonderful .
as swan moves up the local chain of command, such as it is, he’s met with a wall of indifference, derision and outright hostility. the boss of the furnace creek metals group mining company (david wenham) offers him a morning beer but little information, while goldstone ’s mayor, the relentlessly cheerful yet ominously brittle maureen (jacki weaver) bakes him an apple pie but warns him in no uncertain terms to lay off the meddling .
the film will receive a $ 530, 000 (us $ 407, 000) of direct support from screen quensland, which expects to see a $ 2. 15 million (us $ 1. 65 million) of ‘queensland production expenditure’ from the filming process. it also received direct funding of a $ 1. 17 million through the screen australia indigenous unit .
comprising five panels on two consecutive evenings, and including a photography exhibition and film screening, this symposium is an attempt to explore and elaborate on the possibility that, as anthropologist lisa stevenson puts it, what gives images their distinctive power is their capacity to “express without formulating” – their tendency, in other words, to “ drag the world along with them. ”
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as in david milch’s deadwood, sen uses the mining industry as the petri - dish of western civilisation in the tiny (and fictional) goldstone. miners being squeezed to work ungodly hours and industry (booze and prostitution) spawning in their wake. that prostitution is human trafficking of chinese migrants, who are required to pay for their passage to australia by servicing the miners. pei - pei cheng’s mrs. lao plays the stone - faced madam and instrument of fear for the mining company .
in la rose meets herbie, who she entices to represent the act and be their official manager. she flirts with him and dangles the prospect of a romantic engagement between them both, (“small world”). herbie works hard with the girls and creates a new act, getting boys into it and setting up “baby june and her newsboys”. whilst june is the focus of the act, louise is left at the back and is a lot shyer than her sister. the act enjoys some success, but as time goes on vaudeville begins to wane and the girls get older, but the act stays the same. life on the road is becoming tough, and rose has the girls living in hotel rooms alongside the boys from the act. herbie brings mr goldstone of the orpheum circuit to meet rose, and she works hard to secure a contract with him, (“have an eggroll mr goldstone”). louise is feeling forgotten, and sits alone on her birthday with her pet lamb (“little lamb”) .
then there’s the ranch, where chinese girls flown in via the mine are forced into prostitution to pay off debts. sen opens the film with colonial images of early chinese settlers, and the widening of the pic’s gaze to include the dehumanization of chinese as well as indigenous characters makes its indictment of leadership all the starker. josh has had a “f—ing bypass ,
spits swan, “like the whole f—ing country. ”
great follow - up to mystery road. this is a solid austrailian western / neo - noir film. interesting characters, beautiful cinematography, and some tight action scenes. without giving anything away, there is a great shootout, that is filmed in a very realistic manner. bullets and shells penetrate aluminum siding and vehicles like you would expect in a real gunfight. this added such an enjoyable degree of tension. highly recommended .
this superior sequel to mystery road brings back the laconic aboriginal police detective hero jay swan (aaron pedersen), this time investigating a disappearance in a remote queensland mining town. pedersen' s performance in the earlier film was stone - faced to a fault, but life hasn' t been kind to swan over the last few years: his hair has lengthened, his once neatly - trimmed beard is ragged and greying at the edges .
it' s a setting australians will recognise from the movies if not from direct experience – and like the dressmaker, the film is so packed with familiar faces it becomes an echo chamber, as if sen were holding a dialogue with many precursors at once. jacki weaver essentially reprises her crime matriarch role in animal kingdom as the town mayor, who wears bright red lipstick, bakes apple pies and delivers thinly - veiled threats with a motherly simper .
as the stakes inevitably increase and jay and josh’s frenemy relationship leads to a degree of collaboration – the former goading the latter for allowing awful things to happen on his watch – sen dishes out action with unerring patience. by the time a car chase scene arrives, it has the weight of an already great film behind it. there’s a shoot - out too, but every shot matters and every bullet counts; your body can almost register the impact .
as unruly, headstrong cops go, jay swan (aaron pedersen) is up there with the best of them, but he' s no dirty harry. hard drinking harry, maybe, sloshed when we meet him as he drives towards goldstone and his destiny, pulled over by the young smalltown cop, josh (alex russell) and put on the wire bed in the lock up to sober up. pedersen' s unkempt hair, bleary eyes and speechless stupor belie his steadfast determination to clear up the case of missing mei. as we would hope ...
it doesn' t take long for swan to sniff out various scandals that eventually seem like facets of the one problem: the trafficking of asian women, a deal being rushed through to expand the mine, the smuggling of grog into a supposedly dry community. though the villains are obvious from the start, the film is not about pinning the blame on individuals but about sketching a diagram – realistic in outline if not in its pulpy details – that tells us something about australian society as a whole .
i found this sequel superior to the first, mystery road, but i' m not really sure why... perhaps i liked the development of the additional law man in the isolated, outback town with a dark secret turning goldstone into a quasi buddy - movie about two men unsure whether or not they can trust the other in their world of deceit. i' m not overly familiar with either of the two male stars but jackie weaver co - stars as another wicked women... a role she mastered in her (first) oscar - nominated performance in animal kingdom. her eyes... oh her eyes !
• “overture” – orchestra • “may we entertain you? ” – baby june and baby louise • “some people” – rose • “some people” (reprise) – rose • “small world” – rose and herbie • “baby june and her newsboys” – baby june and newsboys • “mr. goldstone, i love you”– rose, herbie, ensemble • “little lamb” – louise • “you’ll never get away from me” – rose and herbie • “dainty june and her farmboys” – june and farmboys • “ broadway ” – june and farmboys • “if momma was married” – june and louise • “all i need is the girl” – tulsa and louise • “everything’s coming up roses” – rose
ivan sen has become a mature and important filmmaker, making his films auteur - like, even shooting the pictures and composing the score. a touch of robert rodriguez, perhaps, down to the flinty stories of outback struggles for heroism. but sen (or is it ivan zen) also injects a crucial element of aboriginal cultural in a way that expands the texture of the story and imbues the film with its spiritual incense, much aided by a minimalist (and with minimal but memorable screen time) david gulpilil as jimmy the elder .
when first seen here, jay swan is a mess. gone is the trim, alert, well - groomed lawman of the first film, with his flashy firearm and ominously clonking cowboy boots. in his place is a puffy, straggly - haired, unfocused and thong - shod drunk driver who is promptly pulled over and cited by local cop josh waters (alex russell) as he approaches the frontier mining outpost of the title (a fleeting reference to his dead daughter, who was very much alive in “mystery road, ” suggests a probable cause of his dissolution) .
once again the town is run by crooks. they’re even broader here than in the earlier film, emboldened by their isolation and the obeisance of the callow josh. as the mayor, jacki weaver trots out the coquettish menace for which she was so garlanded in animal kingdom, though the bug eyes are starting to pall. david wenham’s mine foreman is hardly less mustache - twirling. both are in cahoots with tommy (the chant of jimmie blacksmith ’s tom e. lewis), who presides over the aboriginal land council, where he’s well greased to keep the local elders in check .
this jay swan is very different from the self - controlled detective of mystery road. he is now a scruffy vagrant, arrested for drunk driving in the first scenes of the film. holed up in a two - bit outpost in the middle of nowhere, he is looking, it soon becomes apparent, for a chinese migrant woman who has disappeared. things start to get interesting when he has a series of encounters with the locals: the young, sharply turned - out town cop, the head of a mining company, and the town' s brassy mayor. swan stirs things up as he digs deeper into his investigation, uncovering an unsavoury mess of nepotism and crime .
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australian auteur ivan sen' s new feature is a complex and stylish outback noir that reflects on australia' s history with a compelling tale of its present .
jay visits the tree and finds the small comb and then drives off to the mountain in the distance. the shadow of the tree has moved through an angle of around 40 - 45 degrees, indicating a much longer passage of time than is shown on - screen .
: no, i mean blackfella black. near as i could tell, anyhow .
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likewise, as much as vision of an akubra - wearing gumshoe detective might appeal, down under noir films were never a thing. in the 1940s and 50s, when guys like humphrey bogart wooed dames and dry - gulched cronies, australian cinema was languishing, or just about to: it produced on average just two features a year from 1952 to 1966 .
in his own drunk - as - a skunk way, weeping pathos from his pores thanks to another exemplary performance from star aaron pedersen, the protagonist – detective jay swan – is like clint eastwood’s man with no name, riding into town to upset the status quo .
authorities who run the titular out - woop - woop place, including the mayor, maureen (jacki weaver, again in frozen - smile stink - eye mode), have some kind of racket going on. exactly what it involves will be revealed in time. suffice to say the last thing they want is a brave outsider upsetting their ecosystem of corruption .
aaron pedersen, ‘weeping pathos from his pores’, and jacki weaver in ‘frozen - smile stink - eye mode’, as jay and maureen. photograph: transmission films
in vintage noir fashion, it all begins with a girl. and like virtually any western, it is – save for a couple of prickly supporting characters – a male - oriented affair. sen paints a picture of a viciously sexist society where women, in particular sex workers, are stripped of their rights and their identities, and traded like commodities .
when maureen visits josh at the pub, wielding a freshly baked cake, you can tell by the serpentine hiss in weaver’s voice that he ought to pay attention. a new mine - expansion project is under way, she explains, and it’s worth serious bucks – hundreds of millions of dollars. there’s a slight complication though: it requires “blackfella approval” .
swan is the recipient of numerous lines like “keep your head down” and “don’t rock the boat”, which you just know is going to have the opposite effect .
sen’s environmental messages arrive at a time when coal seam gas exploration is a key election issue; meanwhile, corruption allegations involving mining companies and land councils make it clear the story cannot be brushed aside as mere fiction .
opening images of sepia - toned photographs from the gold rush are crucial. the social and political commentaries underpinning sen’s story paint a picture of a nation that has always, since settlement, prioritised money over land, and has never understood – as midnight oil might have put it (before its lead singer became part of the problem) – something as precious as a hole in the ground .
when josh suggests to jay there is no point rebelling, because when the dust settles the dirt of corruption will remain, jay takes solace in his belief that at least the dirt will be a little thinner .
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aaron pedersen, alex russell, jacki weaver, cheng pei - pei, david wenham, david gulpilil, michelle lim davidson, tom e. lewis, ursula yovich, michael dorman, steve rogers, aaron fa’aso, kate beahan, max cullen, gillian jones .
sen’s unique accomplishment with these two films, unequalled in contemporary aussie cinema, is his daringly idealistic intention and crystal clear success at balancing the demands of contemporary genre filmmaking with, in this case, the ongoing hot - button issues of aboriginal relations (sen is himself of mixed indigenous / european heritage), human trafficking, the human greed behind corporate corruption and cultural destruction .
it isn’t long before everyone in what passes for a town knows he’s arrived and is looking for a chinese woman who has gone missing. a visit to the local aboriginal community leads jay to the fenced - off border of the furnace creek gold mine, where he finds evidence of asian women being flown in and out of the compound. after swan’s trailer at the forlorn diggers rest motel is shot up by a mysterious group of bikers, josh moves swann to a remote cabin. the visitor believes the local is on the take, and they argue .
the head of the local aboriginal land council, tommy (tom e. lewis), is clearly corrupt and is thus of no help at all. only local elder jimmy (indigenous icon david gulpilil, most recently seen in “charlie’s country”) is sympathetic to swan’s cause, taking him on a magical canoe trip to a deep gorge where ancient rock art begins a kind of spiritual awakening for the detective .
meanwhile, outraged at jay’s accusations of corruption, josh begins an investigation of his own, visiting the local brothel where the madam, mrs. lao (martial arts queen cheng pei - pei), reluctantly displays the women working there. these include may (michelle lim davidson), who is chafing to leave but must learn to trust josh — and he her .
when a local hermit gives jay the missing girl’s passport, it triggers a chain of events that leads to swan and josh storming furnace creek in a breathtaking shootout that rights many of the wrongs while handily eclipsing the climactic gun battle in “mystery road. ”
there are western tropes aplenty on display, but swan’s determination and demeanour here is also reminiscent of raymond chandler’s pdescription of his iconic gumshoe creation philip marlowe: “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. he is the hero; he is everything…”
sen wrote the role specifically for pedersen, who in turn modelled much of the character’s mannerisms on his director. the supporting performances are uniformly strong, with all the actors locked tightly into their genre functions; weaver’s slightly deranged take on mayor maureen provides both spice and a dollop of macabre humor .
production: (australia) a transmission films (in australia) release of a screen australia, screen queensland, arclight films, transmission films, dark matter presentation of a dark matter, bunya production. (international sales: arclight films, beverly hills / sydney .). produced by david jowsey, greer simpkin. executive producers, craig deeker, scott otto andersen, oliver lawrance, trevor kennedy, gary hamilton .
crew: directed, written, edited by ivan sen. camera (color, widescreen), sen; music, sen; production designer, matt putland; costume designer, vanessa loh; sound (digital 5. 1 surround), nick edmond; sound designer, thom kellar; re - recording mixer, sam hayward; stunt supervisor, reg roordink; visual effects supervisor, craig deeker; visual effects, clint dodd; associate producer, aaron pedersen; assistant director, richard mcgrath .
with: aaron pedersen, alex russell, jacki weaver, cheng pei - pei, david wenham, david gulpilil, michelle lim davidson, tom e. lewis, ursula yovich, michael dorman, steve rogers, aaron fa’aso, kate beahan, max cullen, gillian jones .
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what seems like a simple “light duties” investigation soon opens into a web of crime and corruption implicating the local mayor, mining boss and aboriginal land council .
in 2012 ivan was awarded the prestigious byron kennedy award, for “his unique artistic vision and for showing, by his resourceful, multidisciplinary filmmaking, that telling stories on screen is in reach of all who have something consequential to say” .
the sequel to australian director ivan sen’s impressive crime thriller mystery road continues the adventures of rugged and laconic indigenous detective jay swan (aaron pedersen), who uncovers some seriously shady dealings in the middle of the outback while investigating the disappearance of a chinese migrant worker .
ivan sen is one of the most interesting younger talents in australian cinema, but also one of the most erratic. his 2013 detective story mystery road was an ambitious misfire, making awkward use of genre convention as if striving to win over the audience that bypassed toomelah, a frightening portrait of a new south wales aboriginal community that remains his best feature to date .
slouching and squinting, rolling one cigarette after another, he has the air of a man who' s long ceased active involvement in life. but appearances deceive: more vividly than before, swan embodies an archetype out of a western, the mysterious stranger who sets about cleaning up a society where corruption holds sway .
the great indigenous actor david gulpilil turns up all too briefly as a tribal elder, with tom e. lewis from the chant of jimmie blacksmith as a more pragmatic representative of the same community. david wenham is the hard - nosed mine overseer, with sun - baked skin and wire - rimmed glasses that (intentionally or not) make him look like jimmie blacksmith director fred schepisi .
while sen has grown more comfortable with the mystery - thriller format, the plot logistics aren' t managed as efficiently. swan periodically recedes from view, as josh (alex russell), the straight - arrow local cop, undertakes a mostly separate inquiry of his own. the ending depends on a crisis of conscience on the part of one of the supporting characters, not linked in any direct way to swan' s arrival .
sen remains a highly rhetorical director, prone to cut to a sudden aerial shot in the middle of a scene or frame a quasi - romantic encounter all in close - ups. frankly, he does himself no favours continuing to serve as his own editor (or worse, composing his own lachrymose music). but he has moments of genuine stylistic audacity: the shifts between drastically dissimilar spaces have an almost science - fiction quality, as when swan sneaks onto the mine site or steps into a van that operates as a one - woman brothel .
jacki weaver is a machiavellian mayor and david wenham a hard - nosed mine overseer .
in any case, there aren' t many australian filmmakers whose future work i' m keener to see .
michelle lim davidson (utopia) plays may, who works at outback brothel called the ranch .
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jay arrives in this town looking for an asian girl, who was reported missing via hotline by maria (ursula yovich). seconds into his time on the mission, on the outskirts of town, you get a sense immediately that something has drawn him to this place beyond the case .
the supporting cast do a great job of rising to pedersen’s performance. jacki weaver is back to her calculating, manipulative best. weaver, just as she did in animal kingdom, has an ability to capture you in her gaze and make the amoral sound trivial. she’s a great female character groomed by greed of the area’s power brokers. david gulpilil’s performance presence is immeasurable. he’s like the living spirit of australian indigenous actors. the moment he encounters jay, it triggers a haunting recognition. david wenham seems intent on taking unassuming looking characters — johnny is doppelgänger for my 3rd grade teacher in this case — and making them callous slime - bags.
goldstone is a 2016 australian crime thriller film written and directed by ivan sen. it is a sequel to mystery road and stars aaron pedersen , alex russell , jacki weaver , david wenham and david gulpilil in his final film role . 
goldstone is a 2016 australian crime thriller film written and directed by ivan sen. it is a sequel to mystery road and stars aaron pedersen, alex russell, jacki weaver, david wenham and david gulpilil in his final film role.
goldstone is a 2016 australian crime thriller film written and directed by ivan sen. it is a sequel to mystery road and stars aaron pedersen, alex russell, jacki weaver, david wenham and david gulpilil in his final film role.