Van Diemen's Land
Directed by: Jonathan auf der HeideStarring: Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel, Paul Ashcroft, Mark Leonard Winter Synopsis: 1822: Van Diemen’s Land, the original name given to the island of Tasmania, is a British penal colony with a brutal reputation. Robert Greenhill, an ex-sailor and navigator, breaks out of prison with seven other convicts. Their original plan of escaping by boat is scuppered however and they head inland with no water and very little food. After eight days of trudging through the dense yet barren forest on empty stomachs, Greenhill convinces some of the men that the only way they are going to survive is by invoking the “Custom of the Sea” – cannibalism... Review:The film Van Diemen’s Land is very much like the landscape of its namesake: raw, bleak, relentless and unforgiving. The first image we see is the dense forestation of the land, quickly followed by a close-up of a man eating some unspecified meat, the sound-effects exaggerated to ensure we hear every slurp, chew and crunch. It takes a few moments for the camera to pull back and reveal we’re actually watching a soldier eat his lunch. It’s a very unsettling way to start a film about cannibalism.The eight convicts are made up of English, Scottish and Irish prisoners. The Irish guys – Alexander Pearce and Dalton in particular – speak mostly in their Gaelic tongue. Their escape is pre-planned: they are all part of a logging detail away from the camp, with only a foreman overseeing their work. Just after their midday meal they attack the foreman and leave him bound and naked while they head back to the boat – but some soldiers arrive and chase them into the forest. 
Tasmania is quite a different place to the Australian mainland. Being the southern-most island, it is a much colder place and even susceptible to snowstorms. The convicts really have to battle the elements at times, with little clothing and no food. The wildlife is mostly nocturnal, and the men have no weapons to hunt with, save for some hefty axes. It’s not long before some are starting to hallucinate from the hunger – especially Pearce, who starts to see blood running from trees.The “15” certificate belies the brutality of the film. The first murder, whilst not particularly explicit, is still quite horrific. The intention was to kill the guy in his sleep, but they botch it and he awakes screaming in agony. Not all the group have been consulted about the decision to turn to cannibalism and their shock at what is happening is palpable. Even more so, when they sit down for their evening meal, one of them considers just how easily it could have been him who was “chosen”, since he was sleeping right next to their victim. It’s an incredibly chilling thought. 
At the time the film is set, Cannibalism as a last resort to survival was considered a Custom of the Sea, a set of rules by which seafarers were judged. Another custom of the sea was the rule that the captain should be the last person to abandon his ship if it were sinking. The Custom of the Sea was finally revoked in a precedent case in 1884, involving the crew of a yacht called “Mignonette”. Being a sailor, Greenhill would have been familiar with these Customs of the Sea. However, being the manipulator that he is, he misrepresents the “tradition” to his fellow escapees. It has to be given the full consent of the whole group for a start – Greenhill doesn’t inform all seven of them of what he is planning. Secondly, the group are meant to draw straws – whoever gets the shortest straw will be the one to die, while the guy with the second shortest straw is the one who will kill him. Greenhill, probably out of self-preservation, chooses which of them should be lunch. The act of cannibalism divides the group and three break off and head out on their own, never to be seen again. This abandonment terrifies one of the remaining convicts. If they’d stuck together, they might have been able to rationalise their actions. However, with three abandoning their fellow convicts and refusing to partake of human flesh, the cannibals are being judged by their peers. They are truly damned. The problem for the surviving convicts is two-fold. First, they have no way of preserving the meat and it goes rotten within a couple of days. Second, they are still stuck in the middle of nowhere, and all are now very wary of each other. Madness and dementia have already started to take hold and bickering turns quickly to raised fists and worse. 
The filming of
Van Diemen’s Land
must have been incredibly arduous, as it looks as if it was shot entirely on location in the desolate yet beautiful rainforests of Tasmania. The actors, even though they look a hardy bunch, probably didn’t have to stretch themselves too much to convey the discomfort and exhaustion experienced by their characters. The problem with the film is that we don’t really care about this bunch of escapees. They are all dangerous criminals and it’s not long into their escape that they start to fall back into their old ways. However we never learn what got them sent to the Colonies in the first place. The film remains completely ambiguous as to whether any of them will survive and no character is really thrust to the foreground for us to root for. One character’s half-mad narration doesn’t help matters either. There is still a lot to admire here though. The scenery is fantastic and never becomes monotonous in fact it almost becomes the film’s antagonist. The score is also very moody and used in a sparing manner. Verdict A handsomely shot ,bleak and grizzly melodrama which is prone to long, drawn out scenes and naval-gazing introspection, Van Diemen’s Land is about people pushed to breaking point in harsh conditions, and the fact that it’s based on real accounts makes it all the more chilling. 6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest) New! CommentsHave your say about this! Leave me a comment in the box below. |
