Goldstone
AUSTRALIA, 2016, 109 MIN
Director Ivan Sen
Producers David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin
Cast Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell, Jacki Weaver,
Cheng Peipei, David Wenham, David Gulpilil, Michelle Lim Davidson
Screenplay/Camera/Editor Ivan Sen
Production
Designer Matt Putland
Music Ivan Sen
Production
Companies Dark Matter/Bunya
Print/Sales Arclight Films
The matchless Ivan Sen, Australia’s premier filmmaker of aboriginal
descent, takes his reinvention of Aussie genre cinema several steps further in
this thrilling outback noir, a smart
mix of frontier Western, anti-corruption actioner and invocations of dreamtime.
Cop Jay Swan (last seen in Mystery Road,
again played by Aaron Pedersen) arrives in the tiny outback town of Goldstone
as a barely functioning alcoholic, wrecked by the loss of his daughter. He’s
supposed to be looking for a missing Chinese woman, but his personal problems –
including brushes with the local white cop, a naïve rookie – stall the
investigation. Only when the lady mayor seeks him out, with home baking in one
hand and veiled threats in the other, and his crummy motel room is shot up by
mysterious bikers, does Jay begin to do what a cop’s gotta do. His attention is
caught by the Furnace Creek Metals Corp, which runs a high-security mining
operation nearby …
Note the credits: Sen not only directs but also writes, photographs,
edits and composes the music. But calling him a ‘maverick filmmaker’ fails to
suggest what an achievement this is. Goldstone
entertains like a genre movie should, much better than most this year, but its
shoot-outs and helicopter stunts are only the froth on the daydream. The story
has deep roots in aboriginal identity, Australian history and racist politics,
and Sen uses the iconic figure of David Gulpilil to guide the anti-hero to an
understanding of what’s really at stake. Star and associate producer Pedersen
says that he based much of Jay Swan’s character on Ivan Sen himself. TONY RAYNS
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