Justin Kurzel’s exploration of the lead-up to one of Australia’s worst mass shootings is a film of eerie, queasy foreboding
If we ever arrive at the consensus that films should no longer challenge or provoke, or should not delve into the deepest and darkest of subjects, it will probably be time for artists to pack up shop and move on. This far into the history of cinema, after so many discussions of the worth of Holocaust dramas, documentaries about genocide and countless other bone-chilling examinations, conferred in the ancient human tradition of using art to contemplate our worst demons, it’s almost surreal that one feels inclined to begin a review of Nitram with the above justification.
And yet Justin Kurzel’s new film was always going to be controversial, dealing with an event that for some carries near incomprehensible trauma. It explores the life of Martin Bryant, who perpetrated the worst single-shooter mass killing in Australia’s history: the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, during which Bryant murdered 35 people and wounded 23 more in the small Tasmanian town. Screenwriter Shaun Grant – who also wrote Snowtown and True History of the Kelly Gang, two other films directed by Kurzel – constructs Nitram’s narrative in a highly self-conscious manner, aware that every sequence will be mined for potential implications.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3kU6LE4
via
0 Comments