David Gulpilil received a Best Actor award at Cannes this year for his performance as a character largely based on his own life experience in Australia’s Aboriginal community. In his third collaboration with filmmaker Rolf de Heer (
Ten Canoes), Gulpilil is the soulful embodiment of Charlie, a restless elder in alcohol-free Arnhem Land who feels the government’s growing grip on his culture while he decries the rapid disappearance of Yolngu traditions. Although well past his prime, Charlie decides to “go bush” and sets out into the wild to practice the old ways, without reckoning how much things really have changed and exactly where he might be going. The film eloquently depicts the daily indignities endured by a marginalized and impoverished people, and in Gulpilil’s remarkable face it finds a vessel of both bemusement and despair, often at the same time, as Charlie confronts modern society with outrage, resilient humor, and more than a measure of mischief.
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Il Fornaio 