Kangaroo | Dir: Kate Woods | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Twenty-five years since the release of Looking for Alibrandi (which closes the Italian Film Festival in October), the iconic Australian film has featured at the Melbourne International Film Festival alongside director Kate Woods’ latest film – Kangaroo.
Arriving in Perth on 18 September, Kangaroo opens by showcasing Australia’s red centre as 12 year-old Indigenous girl Charlie (Lily Whiteley) races a mob of kangaroos in the red dust. Spending time with the kangaroos helps Charlie feel close to her wildlife carer father who has recently died.
Charlie’s mother Rosie (Deborah Mailman) is getting on with her life after moving to Silver Gum, but Charlie avoids going to school, and spends her time caring for joeys whose mothers have been killed in road accidents.
Exiled television presenter from Sydney, Chris Masterman (Ryan Corr), passes through Silver Gum on his big escape from the city, but the hot-shot celebrity doesn’t get much of a welcome. Leaving the town, he accidently kills a large kangaroo and discovers a joey still alive in the pouch.
It is Charlie who comes to his rescue, offering to help him care for the joey and even offering accommodation in her grandparent’s shed for him to stay. Naming the tiny kangaroo Liz, Chris becomes soon becomes attached and ends up taking in more orphaned joeys.
Of course, the joeys supply a cuteness overload and quite a lot of humour. Interestingly, no special effects were used for the joeys that were raised as a mob to get them to bond, and they even had their own trailer in the set of the film!
Filmed in and around Alice Springs, with the people in the community woven into the film, Kangaroo was inspired by Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns who founded the world-renowned Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs.
For two decades, Brolga and his wife Tahnee have looked after kangaroos that have been injured on roads and specialize in caring for orphaned joeys. With support from volunteer wildlife carers, the Rescue Centre has cared for over 1000 orphaned joeys, providing rescue, rehabilitation and care until they are ready to be released back to the wild.
This film about the healing power of animals, community and country is one for the whole family. As Deborah Mailman says, “Kangaroo is about family: the family you’re born with, and the family you choose.”
Lezly Herbert
