I was lucky enough to watch such an inspirational film. Four camels and a dog, a lone woman has traveled through the 2,000-kilometer Australian desert story for 7 months in the movie "Desert Camel Shadow".
The film is an Australian travel and adventure film based on a biography, released at the Venice Film Festival in 2013. The rating of douban is 7.4 points, although the rating is not too high, but the ideas reflected in the film and the magnificent pictures in the film have brought a deep shock to the viewers.
Let's first look at the plot:
The film tells the story of a girl named Davidson in 1975, who embarks on a journey across australia's thousand-mile desert on her own to realize her long-awaited dream of chasing the wilderness desert.
One man, one dog, four camels, it was a tough trip. The road is far away, desolate, hot, fierce wind, sand, lack of water, lost, attacked by wild camels, the death of the little black dog, lonely, lonely, she has hesitated, has retreated, and doubted the meaning of travel, but finally insisted on reaching the other shore.
I once saw an audience member write after watching the movie: "I sat in the air-conditioned room and watched this movie, and I felt that I was living a very obscene life"... I understand the unfinished meaning of this sentence, because the film easily brings itself into the contrast with the protagonist Davidson, such as about faith, about the persistence and search for the meaning of life...
Below, around this film, I talk about my own understanding and feelings.
First, the difference of individuals often brings differences in beliefs and values, but everyone should insist on and find our own life exit.
The heroine of the opening chapter said, "Some homeless people are home everywhere, and some people are at home and have no choice, and I am one of them." ”
Her journey is not to prove anything to others, but to her only thought: to chase the dream of the wilderness and desert, and to embark on a journey across australia's thousand-mile desert alone.
For example, she said:
"People ask me why I'm doing this, and I usually answer why not?"
"The purity of the desert, the heat in the air, and the empty view fascinated me, so I was going to walk."
……
She came to Alice Springs alone from Sydney with nothing. She wanted to find three camels with checked luggage and some money, so she worked for eight months free of charge in the camel taming land, with nothing but the skill of training camels; she personally captured two camels with Sallay Mohomet, who caught camels; she was also given a small camel for taming a male camel, and she also applied for funding from National Geographic...
All the above details, including from beginning to end, the heroine exudes a stubbornness that is shown in order to persevere.
The father of the family and adventurer brings her stubbornness and loneliness, but also gives her a source of perseverance and strength.
In the film, she often shuttles through her dreams and memories, this is a girl who is strong and stubborn on the surface, but lacks a sense of security on the inside. Her young mother died and lived in her aunt's house, lonely to accompany her from childhood, she refused to be lively without herself, away from the hustle and bustle, calm and independent.
As she walked into the depths of the desert, the smallness of humanity was evident, fearful, powerless, but when she was deep in the vast desert, she felt that this was herself.
She said she was going to travel, but she had nothing but herself, her impulsive heart, and the courage to put it into practice.
In addition, because of loneliness, she has an unwarranted rejection of strangers: those who travel by car and the reporters who are squatting make her look very abrupt and untimely, and her heart is firm and calm, that is, to walk through the desert and go to the west coast.
In the long journey, the simplicity, sincerity and kindness of the indigenous people, the trust and mutual help and love between people, the casual nature like the parents who care for their children, gradually smoothed the trauma of her childhood, she began to learn to find someone to talk to, seek help, and learn to realize the wishes of others, which is another harvest on her way of persistence and pursuit. For example, she gave a shotgun to the local indigenous elderly who helped her show her the way.
Third, the director does not overly artistically restrained and rational, but enriches the character image to the greatest extent.
1. In the bland plot development, it quietly portrays the calm and calm of the heroine's heart.
Boring desert walking, as a movie, the story is weak, but as an attitude to life, it is a different matter. The whole movie slowly blooms on the girl's unadorned smile, the desert, the wild sand, the trauma of childhood, the companion, the walking, the heat, the patience, although so difficult, but calm and emotional.
The whole film has a soothing rhythm, full of colors, desert yellow sand, oblique sunset, the simplicity and vicissitudes of people's faces, this sense of depression is inexplicably down-to-earth. It is a kind of quiet on the surface, but full of persistence and strength in the heart.
2. The journey is difficult, but the details are touching.
Shot 1: Under the setting sun, the heroine lies on her luggage, and her feet wearing sandals have been sunburned to a black and white color. The indigenous old man leading the way explains the joke next to him, and the heroine shows her pure smile, although extremely tired, but still able to show her femininity beyond stubbornness;
Shot two: In search of a compass that fell from her duffel bag, the heroine hurried back to the road with her dog, Digiti. Under the sun, the back of the man and the camel is like a long, neat stave, metaphorically saying that no matter how difficult the road is, she will be like a note, to move forward firmly in the chosen direction;
Scene Three: A wild camel who is shot down to the ground by the heroine, and the eyes dripping with blood at the corners of their mouths are glowing blue, desperate and tragic.
Write at the end:
The 1700-mile journey, 7 months of desert walking is over, although there are no ups and downs, but everything experienced in the process is the search and exploration of the heroine's inner desire. Traveling or living in any other way is really just a form that ultimately needs to be adhered to...
Looking back at the film's final arrival on the West Coast, it is really beautiful and human. The most beautiful thing is to walk through the endless and waterless desert and lonely journey, and at the end, suddenly find that it is a blue sea. I remember the saying that "the mood that cannot be described is like that of a child of a mountain, who sees for the first time a vast plain."
The lonely journey may also have an end, but is this the beginning or the end?