[CHARLIE’S COUNTRY
opens in Cleveland on Friday June 5th exclusively at the Capitol Theatre.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
While it’s fair to say that the United States has done a lot
of awful things to the Native American population, we’ve got nothing on
Australia when it comes to shoddy treatment of indigenous people. Just how
shoddy that treatment can be is at the heart of CHARLIE’S COUNTRY, a fine new drama from writer/director Rolf de
Heer.
The film is co-written by David Gulpilil, probably the
only Aboriginal actor the average movie goer might recognize from his roles in WALKABOUT, CROCODILE DUNDEE, and RABBIT
PROOF FENCE. Here he plays Charlie, and aging Aboriginal man longing for a
return to the old days and old ways of his people. Once long ago he performed a tribal folk dance for
Queen Elizabeth at the opening of the Sydney Opera House, a fading glory he clings to as he does whatever he can to get by.
