The Price of Fish SLAVERY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN RODD RATHJEN’S BUOYANCY
‘I WANTED TO UNDERSTAND THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE AND HOW YOU BECOME CAPABLE OF SUCH INHUMANE ACTS … SO, FOR ME, IT WAS JUST PLACING A THOUGHT IN THE AUDIENCE’S HEAD – THAT CHAKRA COULD GO IN ROM RAN’S DIRECTION IF HE’S NOT CAREFUL.’
—RODD RATHJEN
No-one could accuse emerging Australian director Rodd Rathjen of a lack of ambition. They could, perhaps, accuse him of a little too much ambition. His soulful second short, Tau Seru (2013), depicts a young sheep-herder and his father eking out a living in the foothills of the Himalayas. Inspired by his travels through India – where he witnessed the sparse lives of nomads outside the desert city of Leh in the fractious Kashmir region contested by Pakistan – it was shot at a dizzying altitude of 4000 metres and required Rathjen to contend with a significant language barrier. When Tau Seru was selected for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival1– where it would be showcased during Critics’ Week and nominated for the Discovery Award – Rathjen told Screen Australia of the filming experience, ‘I think we were all feeling that we had bitten off more than we could chew.’2
He’s still biting – and his debut feature, Buoyancy (2019), has raised the stakes considerably. Premiering at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival before having its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), it depicts the
