The Tracker

Rolf de Heer's 2002 film is set in the Australian interior in the 1920s. Three white men ride out to capture an Aboriginal man accused of killing a white woman, guided by an experienced Aboriginal tracker. None of them has a name; each is known by his function: the Fanatic, the Follower, the Veteran, the Tracker. David Gulpilil's Tracker leads the party and quietly redistributes where the power in it actually sits. The film's most striking decision is to withhold the violence: the frontier killings are rendered as paintings that fill the frame instead. Archie Roach sings the songs, and the lyrics work as part of the narration. It is regarded as one of the first Australian features to confront the frontier massacres directly. Who it's for: viewers who want films reckoning with colonial history, and Gulpilil's performance. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a western that shows its violence; the film deliberately withholds it.