Resistance (1997)

Hidden Gem

This Austrailian film shot in 1997 takes place in the rural outback down under where aboriginal cultures collide with the greedy forces of a globalized capital looking to cement its control over land and agricultural production, at the expense of every day people.

With careful sensitivity to race, class and gender relations the film explores what happens when normal folks get pushed to the brink by corporate greed and the police/military structures that defend them.

The film begins as a multi-racial gang of temporary/migrant women workers arrives in Ithica Plains to begin the annual wheat harvest. The crew quickly learns that the mill owner has farmed out two thirds of their jobs to prisoners, presumably at a fraction of the cost. When the workers make a stand for the jobs, Wiley, leader of the all-female crew is murdered and an unfortunate chain of events spirals out of control as the entire region is militarized.

While certain scenes betray a low budget cheapness to the film, the director and actors (some of whom reflect a cinema verte ethic) display an amazing sensitivity to portraying a corporate globalization almost beyond human reach, its devastating impact on indigenous cultures and one community's response to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. April 28, 2004

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