The Thousands

Based on oral histories from the Kimberley region, Brendan Fletcher’s exploration of indigenous masculinity was scripted collaboratively with non-professional local actors. Part road movie, part coming-of-age story, part father-son drama, it lacks Samson and Delilah‘s lyricism but its unselfconscious realism is unflinching without being abject, and hopeful without being cheesy.

Hot-headed, bewildered ex-con TJ (Dean Daley-Jones) hitches north from Perth to meet his 13-year-old son Bullet (Lucas Yeeda), but Bullet’s mum Nella (Ngaire Pigram) is suspicious of TJ’s motives, as is her dad, local cop Texas (Greg Tait). Bullet himself has dabbled in arson and been packed off to a two-week boys’ camp in the bush, where Texas hopes he’ll defuse his anger learning traditional ways.

Music is beautifully integrated into the action. Alan and Stephen Pigram (of Broome folk band the Pigram Brothers) play a pivotal role as travelling songmen, and longtime Fletcher collaborator Alex Lloyd appears as a portly singing mechanic. Editor Claire Fletcher also skilfully intercuts scenes to reveal thematic echoes or contrasts, and teases out the silent hilarity of Texas’s men-only discussion group (whose members come purely for the sausage sizzle). Impressively unfussy, Mad Bastards says plenty about masculinity, but thankfully eschews arthouse didacticism.