Why, does it seem, that every film we are exposed to about the Australian indigenous community is heartbreaking, depressing and demoralising? Why does the Caucasian Australian always end up with a sense of self-loathing as the final credits roll down? The answer is simple. Because (in most cases) these bleak and cheerless films accurately mirror the lives and hardships these communities face daily. Warwick Thornton's hand written, directed and filmed 'Samson and Delilah' is no exception to this rule.The film follows our leading roles through an unfathomable period in their lives. The two teenagers live in a very rural, indigenous, central Australian community. Among the dusty plains and corrugated iron, uncommunicative Samson finds little entertainment in his environment. A mature Delilah spends much of her time caring for her unwell grandmother and helping her create traditional works of art. When Delilah's grandmother passes, she is blamed for the death and severely beaten. Samson, too is victim of domestic violence and the two flee for a better life. This, of course, is not the case.The opening sequence is the first time we are exposed to Samson sniffing petrol. Just woken up in rustic accommodation, we see him reach for the plastic bottle, deeply inhaling the chemicals under the shelter of his blanket. It is strongly insinuated that this behaviour is far from outlandish in that environmental context. In terms of content of the film, everything you would expect is present. The abuse of petrol is consistent throughout the film, and we are as saddened as we are horrified to watch its use spread from one person to another. More violence as well is a given, and themes of homelessness, racism and deprivation are certainly not uncommon.Inarguably it's not the feel good movie of the year. Nor is it a personal 'rise and fall' story as at no point is any member of the community painted in a position of power or hope. More accurately, it could be described as an 'out of the fry-pan, into the fire' struggle, Samson and Delilah fleeing hopelessly from their troubles at home to be faced with much more brutal truths about the world as a whole.Every horrifying event that takes place is amplified by how unpretentiously it is put forward. There are no 'Hollywood-esque' sugar coatings, overacting or long-winded musical montages. Incidents of abuse are depicted in the film as routine as any other menial activity. For example, as much time is spent focusing on Delilah being brutally beaten as on Samson simply digging a hole and lying in the cool earth. What is astounding is that the suspense is drawn out so intelligently, that each scene is as successful, interesting and meaningful to watch as the other.The shock elements of the film have so much to offer in terms of getting to understand the characters and their relative situations, however it is the sheer feeling of isolation, which is what shakes the audience's senses.Thornton has used that barren isolation almost thematically and has massaged that feeling into every technical aspect of the film. The entirety of the story is painfully silent. Societal misfits and protagonists Samson and Delilah communicate wholly through body language and expression. It's hard to say whether this adds something to the film, or rather neglects to detract from it, however either way the emotional and metaphoric value of each scene is tremendously heightened, and some serious depth is created between the two.Music is used sparsely, as the silence is so effective in creating such a harsh, raw beauty. A single monotonous tune is played recurringly for a good portion of the film, bringing attention to the unbearably repetitive tedious nature of the lives this community leads. Delilah throughout the film plays a cassette in the car, assumed to be the communities only source of enjoying pre-recorded music. Each night she pushes play, shuts her eyes, and lets the slow classical music surround and comfort her. We as an audience conclude that this music is her personal escape. When the car breaks down, however, and the two are forced to abandon it, Delilah is stripped of this comfort and the beautiful melodies are shortly after replaced with petrol fumes, which she uses as a substitute.Any audience, both Australian and international will be able to appreciate the harsh but unique beauty of the central Australian desert. The dry, barren plains, the gnarled, contorted trees, the rich red soil and infinite dust. Elements such as these aptly compliment the mood of the film, demonstrating eloquently the beauty in suffering. The aesthetics of the film highlight an unexpected silver lining. Samson and Delilah never strike gold, move to the city and live like kings. In fact there is little to suggest that they won't face troubles in the future. Without a spoken word, what is established is their commitment to each other, their love and camaraderie, which is the foundation of their will to keep moving forward.It was never Thornton's intention to create a film to make your heart sing and fill you with hope and inspiration. Nor did he want to depress his audience or create a tearjerker of a film for critical acclaim. The appeal of this movie lies in its honesty, however brutal. Ever complemented by its raw aesthetics and scarce audio, it reflects reality to an almost eerie degree. It doesn't demand your attention, rather it earns it, through patience and diligence, humility and raw Australian skill.

Samson and Delilah is a terribly sad and touching tale of an Australian aboriginal boy and girl. The film, which won the Caméra d'Or award at Cannes for the best first feature, and "golden camera" suits its warm, luminous images, has a long downward trajectory that rights itself just in time toward the end. There is the comfort of a moment of mild hope when the teenage couple settles, after desperate times, in a remote Outback location. We leave them at peace, the girl returning to her craft of making paintings for sale to Alice Springs galleries, the boy attempting to end his substance abuse. A romantic song declares that they will always have each other, thus underlining that this is not a tract or horror film but a love story, and that a cinema of identity is also a cinema of hope. Songs are well used, and so is light. Thornton shows a sure touch and knows how to tell a story, conveying clear messages in long wordless takes that draw you in and grab your heart.This is a first feature by a young aboriginal director, who wrote, shot, and directed (editing is bey Roland Gallois). Thornton takes us into the lives of his characters with sensitivity and delicacy, and all the vividness of an Italian neorealist film. Samson (Rowan McNamarra) lives in a nearly empty house with his brother, who spends the day out front with a little band playing the same reggae song over and over. Samson grabs a guitar and tries some riffs every day, and is chased away. He consoles himself morning and night by sniffing gasoline. He becomes attracted to Delilah (Marissa Gibson), who sleeps nearby and cares for her aging, ailing Nana (Mitjili Gibson), and spends part of each day making paintings with her. These are bought by a gallery owner for a small fee and sold in Alice Springs for tens of thousands of dollars. Deilialh also pushes her grandma in a rickety wheelchair to a ragged health center and to a chapel where she sits a while and prays.Samsom's overtures to Delilah are crude. He scribbles a message on the wall, throws stones at her, and throws his mattress over the fence into her property. Their relationship is largely wordless. When anyone around does speak, it's in aboriginal language, except to exchange a few words with The Man, in this case the gallery owner. The early encounters between the pair are rough but also playful and funny.One day follows another, though the two kids seem to be waking up closer together. Delilah amuses herself sitting in a car listening to a cassette tape of Latin music. One evening Samson does a wild, sexy dance where she can see. Eventually the morning comes when Delilah wakes up to find her grandma dead. In mourning the girl cuts off her hair with a bread knife. Higher than usual, Samson attacks one of the musicians, and is beaten. The girl is beaten with sticks too, by family members who accuse her of causing her grandma's death by misusing her or not giving her her medications.Impulsively Samson and Delilah run away to Alice Springs in a stolen truck. He siphons off a bottle of gas from a car to keep going, and begins sniffing gasoline almost continually. From then on things get worse and worse. They wind up sleeping under a bridge near a once reasonably well off aboriginal man called Gonzo (Scott Thornton) who has declined through drink. Gonzo, who has a gaiety about him, and speaks only English, provides the kids with food, mostly noodles. They shop at a grocery store and Samson steals some extras. They're close now, a couple too miserable to make love but linked by affection, always together, huddling close at night, still hardly speaking. But in this dire situation Samson's gas sniffing becomes more constant and his condition more comatose, so he barely seems to notice when Delilah is swept away in a car by white boys to be raped and beaten. She returns later under the bridge, all bloody. And it gets worse.Somehow they're rescued only to be taken back where they came, where they're beaten and chased off again for past crimes. And this is where things get better, because they drive off to Delilah's first home and find a kind of refuge.Samson and Delilah is unbearably sad and rather like a fable, yet also full of realistic detail, such as the white people in Alice Springs, and the bad conditions the aboriginals live in in the Outback. In a detailed discussion of the film and its context Richard Phillips of the World Socialist Web Site explains how recent discriminatory laws in Australia have forced aborigines out of remote settlements like the ones shown here into more crowded and urban compounds where the health and social conditions are rapidly declining. Phillips says what young aboriginals in the Outback suffer today is generally still harsher than what happens in the film. In particular he says, Thornton, for reasons of his own, doesn't show the abuse by police aboriginals suffer around Alice Springs.This film is another step toward an aboriginal cinema made by aboriginal people (in contrast to a few fine efforts by outsiders like Bruce Beresford's 1986 The Fringe Dwellers). It's very different from the beautiful but relatively escapist 2006 Ten Canoes (co-directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr), which dramatizes a traditional fable. Both approaches to aboriginal culture and experience are valid and both stories need to be told.Included in the New Directors/New Films series co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and screened at both MoMA and the Walter Reade Theater in March 2010.

OK, so I finally went out and watched this film and I really did not like it a great deal either. I am Aboriginal and from a small community and now live in the city and I am very familiar with a lot of what the film presents.I think the acting was great and they both came across very real but I think the script or lack of was very unbelievable. I understand why Samson didn't speak, because sniffing petrol actually destroys the brain, but Delilah should have spoke at a lot of times. There is no reason for her not to speak, especially since she seemed at least a bit switched on. I understand her Nan just died and that affected her, but it is just not really real that she would have not have said anything to Samson ever. If she had enough frame of mind to go get paint and canvas and try to sell she would have definitely at least said something to somebody. I think the film maker was trying to be artistic and he sacrificed dialogue for it, and it was not believable to me. I also understand non-verbal communication is a very big part of my culture, but when we are with our own people we talk a lot. I know a lot of people dealing with similar things and they definitely speak. I had no problem with Samson not speaking because of the petrol, but I had a very big problem with Delilah not speaking.Also, people keep saying they communicated through body language and looks, but for the most part they didn't do that either. They did it a little in the first few scenes at the town camp but after that they didn't really communicate at all, it was more like she was just following him around and he was too high off petrol to really care. By not allowing his characters to speak he did not allow them to express their frustrations and anger and this really was a let down.I also did not believe it as a love story. The first scenes of courting made sense but she did not seem to take a shine to him at any part of the movie, it just seems like she stayed with him just because. I mean did she ever even smile at him? Aborginal people are very passionate and it makes no sense to me why they did not really interact with each other or what she liked about him.I think a lot of people who like this film think it gives them a glimpse at remote Aboriginal life, but I think it does not offer any explanations and leaves too much open for interpretation and it seems to me most people interpret wrong. I also am not comfortable with the shoplifting thing and the lack of positive Aboriginal characters. There are never any good Aboriginal characters for our youth to aspire to be like on TV, all we got is sports and music, thats not good.I think the praise this film is getting should have been given to Yolngu Boy ten years ago. That is a film that was criminally overlooked and still is.regarding Samson and Delilah, I liked the portrayal of petrol sniffing but as an "optimistic love story" that it is presented as, I see no optimism in the film just hopelessness (which I personally don't feel reflects reality) and I did not believe it as a love story either.I think it might have worked as a short film but as a feature film it is very underdeveloped and really does not allow people to connect with the characters or the story. I have no problem with people liking art type films, but when it is presented as being real and as a reflection of Aboriginal life in remote communities but it really is not real because it is trying to be artsy, I have a problem.

It was total and utter rubbish. Made by an amateur; but because it was aboriginal the right wing blue rinse set have to say how good it was. It is insulting that they are mentioning this film in the same sentence as "Oscar". "You can fool some of the people all of the time - you can fool all of the people some of the time - but you can not fool all of the people all of the time".It was badly made, badly acted, and there was no 'direction' at all. Huge big gaps in the story, and the filming. A blank screen for half a minute or more, is not good theater.A big No for this one.