Cinema
Manganinnie
John Honey · 1980
Synopsis
In 1830, during the Black Line, Governor Arthur's operation against the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, Manganinnie survives the attack on her camp; she finds her husband's body and builds his pyre. Separated from her people, she crosses mountains and rivers towards the coast to find her tribe, and on the way meets Joanna, a lost little white girl from a settler family. With no common language, the woman and the child bond; Manganinnie passes on her knowledge to her, beginning with that of fire.
Context
The first feature film financed by the Tasmanian Film Corporation and the first shot entirely on the island, the film adapts a novel by Beth Roberts published in 1979. Unable to find a performer in Tasmania, the crew searched as far as Arnhem Land and chose Mawuyul Yanthalawuy, who translated her own lines into her language, scene by scene; they are not subtitled. Shot in four and a half weeks in the highlands, in Hobart and at Coles Bay, for 481,000 dollars, with music by Peter Sculthorpe, it was released on 15 August 1980, filled cinemas in Tasmania and recouped its costs. The national film archive restored it in 2007.
Who it is for
A film in English and in an Aboriginal language without subtitles, narrated by the child grown into an adult.
Prizes and reception
AFI music prize in 1980; for the academic Greg Lehman, the first human image of his Tasmanian ancestors.
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