This movie is not a romance. That needs to be made perfectly clear right from the start.
What this story is about, is knowledge, power & choice - and the lack of it in Australian Aboriginal communities.
SPOILERS BELOW.
Delilah is a teen in a tiny world of stagnant heat and no future outside it. She cooks for herself and her grandmother, cares for her like an infant, wheels her grandmother along sandy roads to the doctor's and church and helps her make paintings which they sell to a white middle-man for a living. In her minimal free time, she sneaks away to listen to French music.
Samson is a teen with a speech disability (possibly more) who wanders aimlessly, sniffs petrol and is sweet on Delilah. His liking is not reciprocated, but like a child he persists - and like water wearing down a rock, the audience can see that he'll get what he wants eventually, if only for Delilah's lack of power to have her choices respected.
Then her grandmother dies and, bizarrely to a cultural outsider, Delilah is blamed for it. Physically and verbally beaten and accused by three women with sticks, (the movie makes no effort to actually educate its viewers about why this might happen) she is without support or care or compassion.
Samson packs her unconscious body in the communal truck and drives away. Thus begins their 'journey of survival' - with kidnapping and theft.
The resulting difficulties - a near-complete inability to function within white society, no awareness of aid establishments, shoplifting, homelessness, hunger and (for Delilah) abduction, violence, implied rape & hospitalisation - do *not* equate to a romantic story of a woman who suffers for love. She suffers because she has *no other choice*, because she doesn't know what else to do, because she has no-one to help her and the only person who cares - Samson - is equally ignorant and without options, but plus an addition.
This is a story about a girl who has had everything stripped from her except for a boy who doesn't really exist outside his petrol sniffing. There is no background of love, no childhood of friendship, no deep connection to offset his utter uselessness - there is just a girl who is drowning and will hold on to any line she is thrown - and Samson, to his credit, does seem to want to care for her - even though he never really does.
The ending is intended to be happy but is in reality quite depressing - assuming it all isn't just a petrol delusion. Delilah has swapped her infirm grandmother for a brain-damaged Samson and appears to have resumed the exploitative relationship with the white middleman her grandmother sold her paintings to. About the only net positive is that both teens have escaped their community.
Watch this movie to get a glimpse into an alien culture inside Australia and then go read a more educated breakdown of it - but do not delude yourself that this is anything other than a story of dis-empowered suffering.
What this story is about, is knowledge, power & choice - and the lack of it in Australian Aboriginal communities.
SPOILERS BELOW.
Delilah is a teen in a tiny world of stagnant heat and no future outside it. She cooks for herself and her grandmother, cares for her like an infant, wheels her grandmother along sandy roads to the doctor's and church and helps her make paintings which they sell to a white middle-man for a living. In her minimal free time, she sneaks away to listen to French music.
Samson is a teen with a speech disability (possibly more) who wanders aimlessly, sniffs petrol and is sweet on Delilah. His liking is not reciprocated, but like a child he persists - and like water wearing down a rock, the audience can see that he'll get what he wants eventually, if only for Delilah's lack of power to have her choices respected.
Then her grandmother dies and, bizarrely to a cultural outsider, Delilah is blamed for it. Physically and verbally beaten and accused by three women with sticks, (the movie makes no effort to actually educate its viewers about why this might happen) she is without support or care or compassion.
Samson packs her unconscious body in the communal truck and drives away. Thus begins their 'journey of survival' - with kidnapping and theft.
The resulting difficulties - a near-complete inability to function within white society, no awareness of aid establishments, shoplifting, homelessness, hunger and (for Delilah) abduction, violence, implied rape & hospitalisation - do *not* equate to a romantic story of a woman who suffers for love. She suffers because she has *no other choice*, because she doesn't know what else to do, because she has no-one to help her and the only person who cares - Samson - is equally ignorant and without options, but plus an addition.
This is a story about a girl who has had everything stripped from her except for a boy who doesn't really exist outside his petrol sniffing. There is no background of love, no childhood of friendship, no deep connection to offset his utter uselessness - there is just a girl who is drowning and will hold on to any line she is thrown - and Samson, to his credit, does seem to want to care for her - even though he never really does.
The ending is intended to be happy but is in reality quite depressing - assuming it all isn't just a petrol delusion. Delilah has swapped her infirm grandmother for a brain-damaged Samson and appears to have resumed the exploitative relationship with the white middleman her grandmother sold her paintings to. About the only net positive is that both teens have escaped their community.
Watch this movie to get a glimpse into an alien culture inside Australia and then go read a more educated breakdown of it - but do not delude yourself that this is anything other than a story of dis-empowered suffering.