AustLit

The reconciliation period in Australia in the 1990s gave rise to a number of feature films that explicitly engage with the themes of reconciliation, and in particular with issues surrounding understandings of history and Indigenous identity. The two feature films on which this article focuses, Beneath Clouds (Sen 2002) and Samson & Delilah (Thornton 2009), each centre on a pair of young Indigenous characters struggling to find their place in a world characterised by disadvantage and disconnection from mainstream society. The protagonists of the two films make a transition from adolescence to adulthood at a time in Australia that is also experiencing a state of transition—the reconciliation period. (Extract)

'This chapter critically examines the challenges of cross-cultural narrative adaptation at a time of significant socio-political transition. The tragic story of the shooting deaths of two Indigenous youths in a remote South Australian fishing town in the 1970s became inspiration for Phillip Gwynne's debut novel Deadly Unna? (1998). The novel was a fictionalised account of his own experiences growing up in the area and was well received, winning a prestigious Children's Book Council of Australia award in 1999. It was later adapted for the screen by Paul Goldman, under the title Australian Rules (2002).' (Source: Introduction, Samantha Fordham 2011)