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The Oscar Expert4.5

The film’s ending is a total knockout, and it brought me to tears. A powerful slow-burn about grief and the existential horror of colonialism. About a community who gives meaning to the land they stand on, and its rich, intimate history. Meaning that a world determined to “progress” (whatever that means), doesn’t value. Cinematography, score, sound design is all just gorgeous. Mary Twala’s performance is a stunner. Glad I caught this before making my 2021 list.

Jomari Bashin4.0

‎Grief and death are some of the hardest things for me to witness in a film. They unsettle me because they pull me into a space I’d rather not enter — the part of life where silence stretches too long and everything feels uncertain. Yet this film makes that discomfort almost beautiful. Not only through its colors, surreal sound design, or the way it’s shot, but through how it discovers meaning within the sadness itself. ‎‎The theme of resistance in this film hits particularly hard right now. Its stubborn defiance feels urgent in the context of everything happening in the world, communities uprooted, histories erased, and people forced to fight just to hold on to what is theirs. Seeing that resistance emerge from the protagonist, who begins the story on the brink of giving up on life, makes this film powerful and affecting. It’s a film about grief, yet it doesn’t turn away from pain; it lingers in it, studies it, and quietly lets it become something else... transforming despair into purpose, sorrow into steadfastness. Watching that unfold hit me harder than I expected. I could see how grief and defiance might exist side by side, even when life feels completely overwhelming, and I couldn’t help but think about the times I’ve clung to something just to keep going even when nothing around me made sense.

Ashlea 🖤 🐂5.0

The 68½ Melbourne International Film Festival Online - Film SevenThe Sublime Squealing of SorrowStrange storytelling in the most deliciously comprehensible way. Death-dress Grandma kicking the assess of men half her age; a weird and exhilarating depiction of grief and community and the sorrow of losing your land and your home and your loved ones and your history; wailing for each with an equally fierce screaming pitch. I'll kill the Coronavirus for getting in the way of this film. Its fabulous sense of collective spirit and uprising would have made it awesome to watch in the cinema with others. I shifted to about eight different positions in my room, trying to get the best experience for this film at home. Fair to say I loved it to death. This film is my Yomeddine or Give Me Liberty of the MIFF year; crushed it.Rest In Peace, Mary Twala, you legend.