Flathead

Jaydon Martin’s feature directorial debut combines fiction and documentary to present a compassionate portrait of blue-collar life in Australia. Cass Cumerford has borne more than his fair share of setbacks in life. Now in his seventies, he decides to return to his childhood home of Bundaberg, a small city famous for its rum, in Queensland. Through conversations with the strangers he encounters and the friends he makes, Cass gradually reveals the events that have shaped his life – the mistakes he has made, the moments of joy and the grief that weighs him down.

Drawing on the lives and past of a rich panoply of characters in Bundaberg, Martin creates an environment that allows those in front of the camera to perform – summoning the fabric of their lives to interact with others, with subjects that range from addiction, race, faith and the forces that bind and repel us. Shot in crisp monochrome, Flathead traverses its landscape in search of a country that rarely appears in the headlines or on screen. In doing so, it becomes a vital, spirited and poignant portrait of community life.

– Vanja Kaludjercic