Director: Rolf De Heer
Country: Australia
Year: 2002
Runtime: 98 minutes
Language: English
Awards: Venice Film Festival - SIGNIS Award/ Honorable Mention, Valladolid International Film Festival - Jury Special Prize, Screen Music Awards, Australia - Screen Music Award, Flanders International Film Festival - Best Screenplay, Australian Writers' Guild - Awgie Award for Original Feature Film, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards - Best Actor/Best Cinematography/Best Film/Best Music Score
THE TRACKER (aka Endangered) asks us to consider whether or not two different legal systems and two different systems of religious beliefs can exist side by side in a colonial society. Specifically, Australia in 1922. Four men—three Caucasians (on horseback) and an aborigine (on foot)—pursue an aborigine accused of murdering a Caucasian woman. The men are identified by their roles: the Fanatic, the Follower, the Veteran, and the Tracker. The Tracker has his own agenda: the group is always about half-a-day behind the pursued. Is the Tracker’s insistence on pausing for sacred dance and chant simply a delaying tactic, or a genuine need for keeping in touch with his religious roots? In the course of the journey the men quarrel and make up, allegiances shift and shift again, there are violent acts followed by peace. When the Fanatic accuses the Tracker of trying to kill him, the Tracker replies, “No hard feelings, boss.” The astounding scenery and the ethnic music alone make the film worth watching. David Gulpilil (remember him in Walkabout?) stars as the Tracker. THE TRACKER is another memorable and provocative film from the Australian film industry, which has fallen on hard times in recent years, but this film’s a winner. ~ Nick Salerno
Principal Cast: David Gulpilil, Gary Sweet, Damon Gameau, Grant Page, Noel Wilton
Writer: Rolf de Heer
Producers: Bridget Ikin, Rolf de Heer
Cinematographer: Ian Jones Film Editor: Tania Nehme