Wed 17th Mar 2010
Samson and Delilah
Writer, director and cinematographer Warwick Thornton arrived in London today to kick off his week long promotion of his first feature Samson and Delilah
The New Black took the opportunity to go and watch a preview screening and meet the jet lagged Thornton at the Apollo Cinema in London's West End
This is a love story that will make you laugh and make you cry. Set in the Central Australian desert and focuses on Aboriginal teenagers Samson (Rowan McNamara) and Delilah (Marissa Gibson), who both gave excellent performances, considering they are non-professional actors. As you wait for their relationship to grow, things go from bad to worse for the pair when they become homeless. As Thornton put it when he introduced the film, “It is a dark film”. He touches on poverty, homelessness and substance abuse. Common social issues in Aboriginal communities that Australian feature filmmakers have chosen to ignore in the past, until now.
One of the highlights of this award winning film is when they come across Gonzo, an alcoholic vagrant, played very well by Thornton’s real life brother, who is a live wire and speaks and sings to them in English. The film has long takes and little dialogue, 6 minutes to be exact and shot mostly in the Warlpiri language with subtitles, it is amazing how Thornton pulled it off. The soundtrack is mainly Country and Western, which tells the audience Aboriginal people have a great affiliation with country music, whereas most people would associate it as redneck music.
Meeting Thornton was a pleasure, he was cool and modest. Like “Samson and Delilah,” the 40 yr old Aboriginal director grew up in the same world and through faith and perservance has found himself in a position to make feature films... isn't this what dreams are made of ? What an inspiration for emerging filmmakers worldwide.