Samson and Delilah [MA]

Once upon a time in a tiny Aboriginal community in Alice Springs there lived to young people, Samson and Delilah. Samson was a lonely petrol-sniffing boy who fancied Delilah. Delilah was a lonely girl who spent all her time caring for her grandmother. For a long time Delilah refused Samson’s advances, but that all changed when her grandmother died. When the community began to bear down on them the two teenagers ran away together. But the road to freedom and true love is long and dangerous and it soon became apparent that it was really them against world. 

This is a truly beautiful film and a very important piece in Australia’s national cinema. Winning a load of awards, it is the first feature film by Indigenous writer/director and cinematographer, Warwick Thornton. A movie that depicts the real beauty that only comes to light after great tragedy, Samson and Delilah is film that’s not be indulged in lightly. It’s very harsh, brutal, and oftentimes quite unforgiving, but the beautiful love narrative and the breathtaking simplicity with which it’s made makes it a film that stands in a field completely of its own! 

Once upon a time in a tiny Aboriginal community in Alice Springs there lived to young people, Samson and Delilah. Samson was a lonely petrol-sniffing boy who fancied Delilah. Delilah was a lonely girl who spent all her time caring for her grandmother. For a long time Delilah refused Samson’s advances, but that all changed when her grandmother died. When the community began to bear down on them the two teenagers ran away together. But the road to freedom and true love is long and dangerous and it soon became apparent that it was really them against world. 

When I say simplicity, I mean simplicity. The film features minimal dialogue: Samson utters one word throughout the entire duration and Delilah only converses with her grandmother in their native tongue. Now, you hear this and you think ‘oh dear it’s going to be long and boring and I’m not going to know what’s really going on with the characters’ and to a certain extent this is true, but that’s what makes them so endearing! This is a film about two teenagers against the world. We see a whole lot of confronting images such as Samson’s petrol-sniffing, domestic violence in Samson’s family, and community elders beating Delilah with sticks shouting abuse after her grandmother’s death. It becomes apparent that there is no place for them within their own community and then when we see them in white community, they are just neglected and ignored. 

The conflicts and the dramas that these teenagers experience are really shocking and brutal, but it all heightens and intensifies the love that blooms between them. This is not a depiction of typical teenage love! The love that grows between the Samson and Delilah is mutual, deep, and unspoken. It’s hugely evocative and powerful and it has you really feeling for these characters from go to whoa. 

The entire film is shot with a camera on Thornton’s shoulder and the two leads, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson aren’t actors, but kids from the film’s central location. This is a wonderful exhibition of Australian neo-realism that poignantly depicts love, culture, and the harsh relationship that still exists between Australia’s indigenous and non-indigenous societies. 

Rowan and Marissa deliver stunning performances, using their bodies in a way that really succeeds in narrating the story without the aid of dialogue. 

Starring Mitjili Napanangka Gibson, Scott Thornton, Matthew Gibson, and Peter Bartlett, Samson and Delilah is a breathtaking movie that’s filled with drama, violence, and love. It’s a very important piece in Australia’s cinematic repertoire!