Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy
A film by Tracey Moffatt
Thomas 110
“Unsentimental and self-consciously artificial, the film undermines any easy assumptions or conclusions. Formally innovative and thought-provoking at once.” Caryn James,New York Times
1990
19 minutes
Australia
Friday April 5
9:30 A.M
On an isolated, surreal Australian homestead, a middle-aged Aboriginal woman nurses her dying white
mother. The adopted daughter’s attentive gestures mask an almost palpable hostility. Their story alludes
to the assimilation policy that forced Aboriginal children to be raised in white families. The stark, sensual
drama unfolds without dialogue against vivid painted sets as the smooth crooning of an Aboriginal
Christian singer provides ironic counterpoint. Moffatt’s first film displays rare visual assurance and
emotional power.
“A dazzling grand opera of silence and maternity, as opulent as Robert Wilson, as soulfully anguished as Fassbinder.” Manohla Dargis,Best of 1990,Village Voice