De Heer wrote the treatment for The Tracker in one day, but it took him a decade to film the sensitive subject about the first contacts between the aboriginals and the white colonists. In the style of an epic Western, he tells the story of a pursuit through the outback of Australia in 1922. In a land without law and authority, the only good aboriginal is a dead aboriginal. Three policemen on horseback chase the Refugee, a black man accused of murder. The Fanatic is calculating, cold and merciless. The Follower is young and green as grass. The Veteran is more a thinker than a doer. The real leader of the group is the Tracker, a chained aboriginal who helps them through the wilderness. He is a mysterious figure who is not what he seems. Tension within the group rises as the journey progresses and the men think they can see the enemy behind every tree. An interrogation of a group of blacks escalates and degenerates into a massacre. The following quarrel and violence engenders chaos and paranoia. De Heer chose not to show the violence explicitly, but only to let us hear shots and screaming. At these moments, the screen is filled with paintings by the artist Peter Coad. On the soundtrack, we can hear the gripping music of the famous aboriginal singer Archie Roach.
Film details
- Country of production
- Australia
- Year
- 2002
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2004
- Length
- 98"
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
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