Another Country
Charlie's Country
•
1h 15m
Directed by Molly Reynolds • Documentary • With David Gulpilil • 2015 • 75 minutes
At the beginning of last century the Australian Government, along with entrepreneurs, opportunists and do-gooders, made a concerted effort to gain control of the lands of the Yolngu people across northern Arnhem Land, along the central part of northern Australia. While the long succession of would-be cattle barons, missionaries and Government agents failed to dispossess the Yolngu of their lands, the introduction of their new ways and different laws succeeded in eroding the heart of a complex culture that was once strong, defiant and self-sufficient. Another Country is a feature-length documentary which considers, from the inside, the ramifications of one culture being dominated by another. David Gulpilil, Australia’s finest indigenous actor, has spent his adult life trying to navigate his way through two very different, opposing cultures; that of his Yolngu people and that of the prevailing Australian culture. As the narrator in Another Country, he introduces us to these very different world paradigms and gives us first hand insight on the clashes, confusions and chaos between cultures.