Charlie's Country

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Charlie's Country

2013

1h 48m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

95%

Tomatometer

39 Reviews

84%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Charlie (David Gulpilil), an Aboriginal man of Australia, struggles to navigate the society he finds himself in, especially when he tries to reconnect with the traditional ways of his people.

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Critics Consensus

Powerfully performed and beautifully directed, Charlie's Country uses its protagonist's personal saga to explore poignant universal themes.

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Brad Wheeler

Globe and Mail

The upright art-houser is told in English and Yolngu, with English subtitles, but the message would be clear without any dialogue: Australia is no country for old Aborigine.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 21, 2015

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Peter Keough

Boston Globe

Australia offers few sights as sublime as that of David Gulpilil.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 16, 2015

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Tom Keogh

Seattle Times

A series of chapters in noble effort and misadventure alike, all captured with fluid camerawork trained on Gulpilil's every move or his long passages of mesmerizing stillness.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 11, 2015

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Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

The film - beyond some politically correct concessions - has beauty, sensitivity, and humor even in its denunciation. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 3.5/5

Sep 27, 2023

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Stephen A. Russell

The New Daily (Australia)

Gulpilil, as the eponymous Charlie, dreams of returning to his people and traditional way of life, setting out on a quest across the unforgiving yet ethereally beautiful bush. He's a joy to watch.

Rated: 4.5/5

Aug 26, 2020

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Danielle Davenport

One Room With A View

Charlie's Country is passionate, beautiful and bittersweet as it expresses a poignant tale of vulnerability, rage and sorrow.

Rated: 4/5

May 25, 2019

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anne H

Rolf De Heer is a brilliant film maker whose work examines the plight of indigenous Australians, sometimes bleak The Tracker to the joyous in Ten Canoes. Charlies Country is a beautiful study of an aging indigenous man whose quest is to return to country. In his quest he becomes ill and is found by his friend and is hospitalized in the city of Darwin. His journey stumbles when he becomes a victim of white mans law and is imprisoned as a result of a fracas with the police. He grapples with the boredom of prison life and the suffocating effect it has on indigenous people who are bonded with the land. David Gulpilil as Charlie is sublime as this proud elegant indigenous man. He is a wise man and his silence and stillness says so much. This is David Gulpilils finest performance and one of the finest I have seen on screen. He is truly mesmerizing on screen, and De Heers Direction is a labor of love of its subject.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/23/23

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dustin d

Charlie's Country is a humorous and insightful look at life of an Aboriginal Australian in the repressive police state down under.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Exceptional take on the outcome of colonisation and destruction of first Australians culture. Superbly directed and shot.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

love this movie very powerful

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Audience Member

Hollywood could never ever make a move like this - understated, non-melodramatic, no Shawshank Redemption BS. Sure it consists of vignettes, but director de Heer knows the cinematic power of co-writer and main actor, Gulpilil.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One of the better movies I have seen in recent times, Charlie's Country is about the agony of dispossession, and the despondency arising from not being able to live life on one's own terms in one's own birthplace, as depicted through the life of Charlie, an elderly aboriginal who lives in Australia's Northern Territory

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

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Synopsis

Charlie (David Gulpilil), an Aboriginal man of Australia, struggles to navigate the society he finds himself in, especially when he tries to reconnect with the traditional ways of his people.

Director: Rolf de Heer
Producer: Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr, Nils Erik Nielsen
Screenwriter: Rolf de Heer, David Gulpilil
Production Co: Bula'bula Arts Aboriginal, The South Australian Film Corporation, Screen Australia, Vertigo Productions, Adelaide Film Festival
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Australian English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 27, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $13.4K
Runtime: 1h 48m

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