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Year Released 2007
Duration 91
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Unfinished Sky
Editorial ReviewMovie Summary
Movie Genre:
Drama
Rated:
M
Director:
Peter Duncan
Starring:
Monic Hendrickx, William McInnes
Editorial Review
Australian films that attempt to explore the plight of refugees can be a deadly earnest prospect, burdened with the ever present threat of white liberal sentimentality run amok. Writer-director Peter Duncan appears to have made the wise choice to focus on the personal rather than the political in Unfinished Sky, a film more concerned with the inner fear of its characters - and one that wants to play like a claustrophobic, Michael Haneke-style thriller.
On closer inspection, some might wonder if Duncan's project is fuelled by a more cynical goal. Unfinished Sky is essentially a remake of 1998 Dutch film De Poolse Bruid, in which a Polish brothel escapee (also played by Hendrickx, who's Dutch) sought refuge with a lonely farmer. Transplanted to a modern Australia of detention centres and race tension, the story - which takes an inevitable turn toward romance - may come across as facile and convenient.
To Duncan's credit, Unfinished Sky works for the most part as a grim scenario infused with an insistent feeling of dread; a depressing, alpha male squabble over an “exotic” prize. Whether intentional or not, the film emerges as a woman's escaping one form of rape for another - trading the savage indignity of her violation in captivity for a slower, more insidious kind of cultural trespass, as she's held prisoner by a man who sees her as a doll to be moulded in the image of his lost wife.
Where David Field's cop and Bille Brown's hotel pig ooze instant menace, McInnes, with his perpetually slit eyes, dead jaw and heart-of-gold cliché, is a creepy alternative - especially when, in a pivotal scene, he insists Tahmeena wear his wife's dress. The awkward, and unnecessary, transition to romance that follows undermines the credible tension of the film.
Works best as horror: a woman hunted and trapped in equal measure.
Luke Goodsell
Tell us what you think
2 comments
Rizal Dua Darah: I agree, Bianca. This film is well acted, interesting, topical, & there's no CGI! How refreshing to see a local & 'human' story. (02 July 2008)
Bianca: Very enjoyable. It got my attention from the begining to the end. Good plot excellent acting from McInnes and Hendricks (18 June 2008)
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