When I heard the name Jindabyne I thought it sounded like a type of ballroom dance or even some kind of hippy outdoor festival. Silly me. It’s actually a town in New South Wales, Australia, near to the beautiful Snowy Mountains. It’s also the name of Ray Lawrence’s new film, shot on location in and around Jindabyne.
This is Lawrence’s third feature. His first Bliss (1985) – about an ad exec who dies for four minutes but when he recovers believes he’s in hell – didn’t go down all that well with film reviewers. In fact, international critics at a screening of the film in Cannes that year, walked out of the auditorium en masse.
It took the director sixteen years to release his second film, the psychological drama Lantana (2001), which got the critics’ attention again, but this time for the right reasons. Lantana went on to win a string of awards, and deservedly so. It is a superbly acted ensemble piece.
Loosely based on the Ray Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home (also the inspiration for one of the tales in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts), Jindabyne was adapted by Beatrix Christian, an award-winning playwright making her screenwriting debut. In my view, she has made a successful transition from theatre to screen. Lawrence must think so too since Christian is also writing the script for his next film (yet to be announced).
In Jindabyne four men on a weekend fishing trip discover the naked body of a young Aboriginal woman in the river. However, their initial distress is soon replaced by their selfish assessment that it is too far to hike back to the road, report the crime and return to their camp before nightfall. So the men decide to continue fishing for another day. When they finally get home and contact the police, they are shocked by the hostile reaction of their family, friends and the local community over their decision not to return immediately.
Jindabyne deals with a number of issues revolving around: race, gender, anger, shame, and moral and social responsibility. The dark subject matter of the film combined with the visual beauty of some of its locations, makes for an incredibly powerful production.
Jindabyne will be released in the UK by Revolver Entertainment on 25 May 2007.
Download more information about Jindabyne here
View the trailer released by Sony Pictures Classics (courtesy of YouTube):
What others are saying:
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/02/26/trailer-for-jindabyne-is-online-now/
http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/jindabyne-preview
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