Free Country COLONIAL INCURSIONS IN STEPHEN MAXWELL JOHNSON’S HIGH GROUND
High Ground is a provocative interrogation into the nation’s bloody history, as Nicholas Godfrey writes.
High Ground (Stephen Maxwell Johnson, 2020) is an arresting and immersive film that uses the genre of the western to bring Australia’s past to life. It has been a long time coming for Johnson; while his journeyman career has included music videos and television work, he has not directed a feature film since 2001’s Yolngu Boy. High Ground has been well worth the wait, however. Its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2020 yielded international sales to Playtime in Europe, Samuel Goldwyn Films in the United States and Madman locally, shortly before global film exhibition ground to a shuddering halt. High Ground’s COVID-safe gala at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2020 had the air of a truly special occasion: David Gulpilil, Rolf de Heer and Jack Thompson were among the guests to take their seats in the audience, while producer/actor Witiyana Marika and the film’s extended cast performed a ceremonial welcome. Johnson, with some understatement, explained that ‘the film will do the talking’. A work born of genuine collaboration and exchange, High Ground has much to say, and will doubtless be the
