Jedda (movie)

Jedda (released in the UK as Jedda the Uncivilized) is a 1955 Australian film written, produced and directed by Charles Chauvel. His last film, it is notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali, better known Bobby Wilson and Ngarla Kunoth, now known as Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, in the leading roles. It was also the first Australian feature film to be shot in colour.Jedda is seen by some as an influential film in the development of Australian cinema, as setting a new standard for future Australian films. It won more international attention than previous Australian films, during a time when Hollywood films were dominating the Australian cinema. The director, Charles Chauvel, was nominated for the Golden Palm Award in the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, but lost to the American Delbert Mann for Marty.

Jedda is an Aboriginal girl born on a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. After her mother dies giving birth to her, the child is brought to Sarah McMann, the wife of the station boss. Sarah has recently lost her own newborn to illness. She at first intends to give the baby to one of the Aboriginal women who work on the station, but then raises Jedda as her own, teaching her European ways and separating her from other Aborigines.

Jedda wants to learn about her own culture, but is forbidden by Sarah. When Jedda grows into a young woman, she becomes curious about an Aboriginal man from the bush named Marbuck. This tall stranger arouses strong feelings in her. She is lured to his camp one night by a song. Marbuck abducts her and sets off back to his tribal land, through crocodile-infested swamps.

Joe, a half-caste in love with Jedda, tracks the two for several days. They travel across high, rocky country, and down a river until Marbuck reaches his tribe. The tribal council declares that Marbuck has committed a serious crime by bringing Jedda to them, because she is not of the right skin group. They sing his death song as punishment. Marbuck defies the elders and takes Jedda into an area of steep cliffs and canyons, taboo lands. Driven insane by the death song, he pulls Jedda with him over a tall cliff, and both perish. Joe, the narrator, says her spirit has joined "the great mother of the world, in the dreaming time of tomorrow."