Die Morde von Snowtown (2011)

Die Morde von Snowtown: Directed by Justin Kurzel. With Lucas Pittaway, Bob Adriaens, Louise Harris, Frank Cwiertniak. Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother’s new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.

“I agree with the other people who have written reviews who say that it is good to get some background on the murders as I watched this without any and was confused in parts. What is interesting is that the film makers either assumed that you would have this knowledge, or accepted that the plot would only partially be known. In that sense we really are like witnesses who arenu0026#39;t let in on all the facts – in a strange way keeping some of the plot details leads to the sense of claustrophobia in the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSnowtown is an excellent example of the genre of gritty Australian realism which includes films like The Boys and Idiot Box.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis reminded me a lot of The Boys in building tension slowly and I think the rhythm of the film was spot on. It was also similar in the sense that it suggested that poverty and a lack of opportunity lead to violence (not necessarily for Bunting but probably for the other characters). But I think this just reinforces prejudices about poverty that middle class people have.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think that Jamie was a very good choice as a main character because he clearly had the most complex relationship with Bunting and what he was doing. As the audience we were also invited to have that relationship thenu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI was pretty surprised that the film only had an MA rating rather than R, particularly given the nature of the violence portrayed.”