Ivan Sen goes back to his roots with Toomelah

The Australian director returns to Cannes with his film Toomelah, selected for Un Certain Regard. As the son of an Aboriginal mother and a European father, Ivan Sen’s origins have been an important influence on his cinema.

Whether in Yellow Fella, selected for Un Certain Regard in 2005 or in Beneath Clouds, his first feature film, Ivan Sen’s films depict the day to day problems of native Australians in search of their identity. Toomelah tells the story of Daniel, a 10 year old boy who lives in a remote Aboriginal community alongside a local gang. The young boy has to make a choice about his future when he finds himself alone and vulnerable after the return of a rival drug dealer. “The script was written on the basis of experiences and memories I picked up during my visits to Toomelah”, explains the director.

Ivan Sen’s keen interest in his origins has always shown in his movies. In Beneath Clouds, he portrays Lena, a mixed-race teenager living with her Aboriginal mother. To escape the harshness of her life, she moves to Sydney on the tracks of her Irish father. But during her trip she falls victim to prejudice and racism. In 2005, the film-maker was back in Cannes with a short film that retraced the career of Tom Lewis, the Aboriginal star of The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. In 2008, his documentary on the life of Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins was broadcast on TV. Talking about his latest movie, the director confides, “Toomelah is where my mother and her family grew up. This community is at the heart of my Aboriginal roots. I photographed and filmed the place and its people for many years, to try to express this connection“.

A.C.

The film is scheduled for screening in the Debussy Theatre at 11am.