QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

The story takes place in the wild Australian hinterlands during the 1930s. Civilisation is so sparse and precarious that you’d be forgiven for assuming the movie was set in the 19th century. The burning yellow soil, the rocky formations, the shrubby vegetation, the shabby wooden houses, and the trigger-happy white men on horseback make the movie look a lot like an American Western.

Max and Kid are aged roughly 10. Max is Black, while Kid has pale skin. These two gentle boys are both of mixed race. They cling to each other like siblings. Eventually it is revealed that this is indeed the case: they share a mother who mysteriously disappeared while working as a maid in a local ranch for a while man called Billy. Her name is Pansy (Deborah Mailman). Her mysterious figure appears several times throughout the movie, without revealing her whereabouts. A white rancher called Mick (Thomas M. Wright) kidnaps the two children to work in his own farm. He also seizes a third man: 20-something Philomac (Pedrea Jackson), of brown skin and visibly “half-breed”.

The three slaves run away and seek shelter with other outsiders. Mick and his nasty white friends embark on a mission to capture them. While the cinematography is bright and colourful, with abundant flare and beautiful sunshine, the developments are very black and white: this is a clear battle of whites versus non-whites, in a deeply racist country where anything other than European blood is deemed socially inferior. A Chinese family (who the whites dismiss as “chinks”) lends the three protagonists a helping hand. Aborigenes too are prepared to step in if necessary, and their archery skills come in very handy and just at the right time..

There is barely anything memorable about Wolfram. You’ve seen this story many times before: the marginalised rise up, unite and fight. The acting is lukewarm, and most of the events predictable. Some characters lack development (particularly the vital mother character). Women barely have a voice, except when asking clients not to urinate at the counter of the bar. A definite Bechdel Test fail. Far more crucially, Wolfram does not engage viewers at all.

The tedious and unremarkable story seeks to engage audience with lame humour. A character fatally shot by two arrows says that he’s “ok” upon being asked about his condition asked. Kid talks candidly to a donkey as if it was his best friend. Boring action scenes and gruesome props/make-up desperately seek to lift the movie out of banality. Silly bang-bang, gunshot wounds, an axe murder, the burning corpse of a black man, rotting animals, and other devices fail to either shock and rivet viewers. Australian director Warwick Thornton, and the two writers (Steven McGregor and David Tranter) miss the opportunity to turn two interesting twists at the very end of the film into something effective. The revelations are made without vigour. Much in contrast to the weather depicted on the silver screen, you will leave the theatre feeling cold.

Wolfram just premiered in the Official Competition of the 76th Berlinale.