''Beneath Clouds'' is a 2002 film by

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

director

Ivan Sen Ivan Sen (born 1972) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. He is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as an editor, composer and sound designer. He is co-founder and director of Bunya Productions. Early life Ivan Sen was born ...

. It is the feature film debut by the two lead actors. Damian Pitt was approached by Sen on the streets of

Moree, New South Wales Moree is a town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River, in the centre of the rich black-soil plains. The town is located at the junction of the Newell Highway and Gwydir Highway ...

, and had never acted before. Dannielle Hall was cast through a more traditional method, via an audition tape. Much of the support cast were local residents from Pitt's hometown of Moree.

Plot synopsis

Lena has an absent Irish father she longs to see and an Aboriginal mother she finds disgusting. When she breaks away, she meets up with petty criminal Vaughn who's just escaped from low security prison to reluctantly visit his dying mother. Blonde and light-skinned, Lena remains in denial about her Aboriginal heritage; Vaughn is an angry young man with a grudge against all whites. An uneasy relationship begins to form as they hit the road heading to Sydney, taking them on a journey that's as emotional as it is physical, as revealing as it is desperate. Initially the two reluctant travelling companions are suspicious and wary of each other, but their journey, mostly by foot and the odd lift, builds an understanding between them. The film follows its creator's (Ivan Sen's) own experiences growing up in Inverell, NSW with an Aboriginal mother and a European father who was not around.

Production

The film was financed by the New South Wales Film Commission and the Australian Film Finance Corporation.

Reception

Only two film critics have posted reviews on the

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, both positive. Urban Cinefile Critics commented "Displaying about equal amounts of naiveté, passion and talent, ''Beneath Clouds'' establishes Sen as a filmmaker of considerable potential". Andrew Howe of eCritic.com called it "One of the few feature films to canvass the issues facing the Aboriginal community from an adolescent perspective".

Accolades

Box office

'' Beneath Clouds '' grossed $548,416 at the box office in Australia.

References

External links

*
Beneath Clouds
at Oz Movies * Samantha Fordham
Struggling to find their place: Indigenous youth, identity, and storytelling in Beneath Clouds and Samson & Delilah
Refractory: a Journal for Entertainment Media. Vol 18, May 2011, Screen and Cinema Studies, Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology,
Beneath Clouds at the National Film and Sound Archive
{{Ivan Sen 2002 films 2000s drama road movies Films set in New South Wales Australian drama road movies Films about Aboriginal Australians Films shot in Australia 2002 drama films Films directed by Ivan Sen 2000s English-language films