Plot
This event aced as the catalyst for the events of the film
The Aboriginal tracker who offers to help find Emily.
Who is Albert?
The central theme of racial division in the film.
What is racism and prejudice?
The use of song to tell the story.
What is a musical?
“This land is mine.”
What is Jim’s assertion of colonial ownership?
This event prevents the Aboriginal tracker from joining the initial search.
What is Jim's refusal to let him help.
The mother who defies her husband’s prejudice to search for her daughter.
Who is Rose?
The theme expressed in Rose’s willingness to cross cultural boundaries.
What is reconciliation?
This cinematic technique highlights the beauty and danger of the land.
What are long shots and establishing shots?
“This land is me.”
What is Albert’s assertion of Aboriginal belonging?
The fate of Emily at the end of the film.
What is death?
The character who represents colonial authority and stubborn pride.
Who is Jim?
The film critiques colonial land ownership by showing who is barred from helping.
What is Aboriginal dispossession and exclusion?
The technique used in Jim’s lyrics “This Land is Mine” with Albert’s “This Land is Me.”
What is juxtaposition /duet / contrast?
"All the way to the old fence line"
Symbolises longstanding, engrained racism and exclusion.
The way the community’s failed search highlights the tragedy.
The role of Jim's daughter in the narrative.
The loss of Emily represents this broader symbolic loss.
What is the failure to reconcile cultures?
The way the camera frames Rose’s defiance when she turns to Albert for help.
What is close-up on her face to show determination?
Rose's absence of communication with Jim.
What is silent criticism in the face of unfulfilled duties?
The song that foreshadows Emily’s desire to explore the land and her tragic disappearance.
What is "One Night the Moon"?
The contrasting character arcs of Rose and Jim highlight this broader social issue.
What is gender norms and positions of power?
The broader thematic statement about Australia’s national history.
What is the destructive legacy of colonisation?
The motif that represents cultural conflict and belonging throughout the film.
What is the land / landscape?
"We are united in a brotherhood of man"
What is the irony of western Christianity which purports to unite cultures?