Jindabyne - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
IT’S been almost six years since Australian director Ray Lawrence impressed with his second feature, Lantana, starring Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey.
The film won seven AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, including best picture, best director, best actor for LaPaglia, best actress for Kerry Armstrong and best adapted screenplay for Andrew Bovell.
Needless to say, expectation was always going to be high surrounding his next release, Jindabyne. Having seen it, IndieLondon can report that Lawrence has crafted another absorbing picture that demands to be seen when it’s released in May.
The film follows the fortunes of a group of men led by Gabriel Byrne who head off for their annual fishing trip in the isolated high country of Australia only to find the body of a dead girl in the river. Instead of reporting it immediately, they secure the body and spend the day fishing and enjoy one of the most successful trips ever.
But when they finally return home to Jindabyne and report the body, all hell breaks loose once news emerges of their decision to wait. The fishermen, their wives and children are suddenly haunted by their own bad spirits and as public opinion builds against the actions of the men, their certainty about themselves and the decision they made at the river is challenged.
Meanwhile, the community must also come to terms with the fact there could be a murderer in their midst, whilst addressing the racial tensions that exist between themselves and Australia’s indegenous people.
Jindabyne co-stars Laura Linney, John Howard, Deborra-lee Furness, Stelios Yiakmis and Leah Purcell (who also featured as LaPaglia’s police officer partner in Lantana). It’s a thought-provoking character study that offers no easy answers for either viewers or characters.
The film is based on the story So Much Water So Close To Home that has appealed to Lawrence for some time.
Explaining its origins, he said: “After I finished Bliss [his first film], I was reading purely for pleasure and there was a story I thought would make a good film. I ran into Paul Kelly. We had common interests. We didn’t become fast friends then, just interested in similar things.
“I started to tell him the story and he introduced me to the writings of Raymond Carver. One of these stories was So Much Water So Close To Home, which had at its heart the most fantastic moral dilemma. I thought that maybe that would be better than the one I was planning. That was 20 years ago.
“I tried to do other things. It sort of came and went. But there’s just one little thing in a story you like and sometimes you forget everything else. It’s just that one little piece, like a hook, it catches you. With So Much Water So Close To Home it was the difference of opinion that promoted very strong discussion between men and women.”
Jindabyne is due to open in UK cinemas on May 25.