Inspired by the long-overlooked history of the cameleers who journeyed from Afghanistan and beyond to haul supplies across the late-nineteenth-century Australian outback, Roderick MacKay’s debut feature paints a complicated portrait of the country’s colonial past. In its tale of ill-gotten gold, racial animus and displacement, the film is a thematically unique – if, in other respects, somewhat conventional – instalment in a new wave of Australian westerns, writes Jessica Kiang.
Over the long and storied history of the movie western, there have been hundreds of night-time campfire scenes. Usually signalling a lull in the linear action of the narrative, these moments are rarely the most emblematic of the films they’re in and – with the possible exception of Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974) – rarely the most immediately remembered. And…
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Metro (Digital) - 1 Issue, No. 208