☰
Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Charlie's Country

Play trailer Poster for Charlie's Country 2013 1h 48m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer 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.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

Charlie's Country

Charlie's Country

What to Know

Critics Consensus

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

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More (39)
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 Full Review Peter Keough Boston Globe Australia offers few sights as sublime as that of David Gulpilil. Rated: 3/4 Jul 16, 2015 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More (37)
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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Audience Member love this movie very powerful Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review 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 Read all reviews
Charlie's Country

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Rolf de Heer

Director

David Gulpilil

Charlie

Peter Djigirr

Black Pete

Luke Ford

Luke

Bobby Bunungurr

Bobby

Jennifer Budukpuduk Gaykamangu

Faith

More Like This

View All
Burning Man 72% 64% Burning Man Watchlist Streamline 75% 62% Streamline Watchlist TRAILER for Streamline Breath 80% 75% Breath Watchlist TRAILER for Breath The Turning 86% 53% The Turning Watchlist Life Inside Out 67% 87% Life Inside Out Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More
View All

Charlie's Country

Charlie's Country (2013) Charlie's Country (2013) View more photos

Movie Info

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
The South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival, Vertigo Productions, Screen Australia, Bula'bula Arts Aboriginal
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Australian English
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 27, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$13.4K
Runtime
1h 48m
Most Popular at Home Now