Beneath Clouds

Lena has an aboriginal mother and an Irish father. From the latter, she inherited her white skin and blue eyes, but he left years before. Lena detests the small village in New South Wales where she lives and one day she leaves for Sydney, to look for her father. On the journey, she meets Vaughn, an aboriginal boy of her own age who has escaped from a youth prison and is also on his way to Sydney. Neither of them have money or a means of transport. Both Lena and Vaughn personify to each other what they hate and are trying to flee: she sees in him the life she wants to leave behind her, he regards her as a member of the society that rejects him. However they have to hitch on together, quarrelling and bickering. In the next 24 hours, they make an emotional journey through the changing landscape. The two teenagers slowly grow closer together.The two main themes of Beneath Clouds, an aim in life and identity, are close to the heart of Ivan Sen. He chose the medium film because this struck him as the best way to present them within a framework of dramatic reality. Sen uses complex manyangled camera positions that have a stunning effect. With his powerful visual style, complex and fluent, he earned the prize for the best début at the Berlin Film Festival.