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.
I want to use more contemporary stories to help other people understand that there is an amazing connection us Aboriginal people have with the afterlife.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2014
The Darkside 2013
‘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