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Speaker 1: Jonesy and Amanda's.

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Speaker 2: A couple of days ago, Jonesy and I saw a

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Speaker 2: new Australian film called high Ground. It stars, among other celebrities,

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Speaker 2: other stars Simon Baker. He's also executive producer of this film.

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Speaker 2: This is a project that's very close to his heart

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Speaker 2: and it tells the story of I guess, our joint

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Speaker 2: history with our First Nations people, and how hard it

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Speaker 2: is to watch some of those scenes, isn't it. It

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Speaker 2: was an extraordinary film to hear the Indigenous language through

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Speaker 2: a lot of this film. That was a beautiful, beautiful scenery,

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Speaker 2: beautiful music. But what an interesting way for us to

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Speaker 2: go back and look at our history. As I said,

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Speaker 2: the film is called high Ground, and Simon joins us. Now, Hello, Simon, Hi.

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Speaker 3: Guys, congratulations. It's such a great movie and it's one

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Speaker 3: of those ones that you watch being a fifty two

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Speaker 3: year old white guy. It really brings home how precious

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Speaker 3: our Indigenous people are to not just Australia, to the

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Speaker 3: world world.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's remarkable, you know, And how much

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Speaker 1: did you learn about it at school? Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's mind blowing. It's mind blowing. Although you know, like

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Speaker 1: we'll finish high school, back up and travel off to

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Speaker 1: Greece to learn about the you know, three thousand years

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Speaker 1: ago the Greeks, but sixty five thousand years ago. Everywhere

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Speaker 1: you go in Australia, the rock that stands next to

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Speaker 1: you has more knowledge than you do. You know, as

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Speaker 1: a white person, you know, why haven't we delve? Why

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Speaker 1: aren't we more and more curious? Because I think we're

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Speaker 1: afraid to look at the atrocities. We're afraid to sit

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Speaker 1: with the uncomfortableness of it.

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Speaker 2: What I found so interesting and is this based on

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Speaker 2: one true event or a variety of events that have

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Speaker 2: been put together.

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Speaker 1: It's based on a variety of events that were put together.

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Speaker 1: And Whittyana Marine the elder, the old man in the story.

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Speaker 1: He and Stephen Maxwell Johnson, the director a big friends

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Speaker 1: for thirty years or something. So the movie's been in

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Speaker 1: the making for about twenty years with a lot of

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Speaker 1: different stories from up around the area. Amalgam made it.

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Speaker 3: The character you play in there, Travis is an ex

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Speaker 3: soldier and he's a bit of an anti hero. But

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Speaker 3: there's a line there where Jack Thompson says civilization is

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Speaker 3: built with bad men like me and you meaning your

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Speaker 3: character clearing the way for the rest of.

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Speaker 1: Them isn't doing bad things.

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Speaker 3: Bad but it just seems like that seems like to

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Speaker 3: be the case for everything.

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Speaker 1: Yep, that's right. Yeah, if you look at the world, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: pretty much like that. But I'm thinking that there's a

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Speaker 1: sort of a seismic shift in the last year of

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Speaker 1: consciousness where I think they're things are sort of changing

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Speaker 1: a little bit as an awareness now, I think COVID

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Speaker 1: has worken us up a bit, and that feels almost

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Speaker 1: like the old way. I hope.

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Speaker 2: There were also interesting shades of gray in the in

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Speaker 2: the characters, even your character, so it wasn't so simple

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Speaker 2: as to say all the white guys were the baddies.

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Speaker 2: Your characters conflicted along the way too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think you know. What I kind of like

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Speaker 1: about my character is that it's sort of representative in

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Speaker 1: a way of like, here's a guy that just wants

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Speaker 1: to separate away and avoid looking at it as much

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Speaker 1: as possible, Like he isolates himself from the original massacre

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Speaker 1: and just walks away. He doesn't stand stay back and

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Speaker 1: fight for what he believes is right. He actually just

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Speaker 1: removes himself, which is one way of dealing with shame

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Speaker 1: and guilt. But then ultimately he's sort of he's raised

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Speaker 1: emotionally raised by Gutchuuk, the character that Jacob Junior nine

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Speaker 1: gul plays, and it looks like externally it looks like

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Speaker 1: a father and son sort of relationship, but in essence, emotionally,

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Speaker 1: the emotional maturity of the younger indigenous boy is what

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Speaker 1: helps us grow into a man.

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Speaker 3: Really, And Jacob Junior, this is his first role.

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Speaker 1: Extraordinary. Yeah, Yeah, he's beautiful and he was cast like

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Speaker 1: sort of two days before we started shooting, you know,

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Speaker 1: and he never acted before. He's just got story runs

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Speaker 1: through him. I mean culture, his culture, his story, His

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Speaker 1: culture is that land.

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Speaker 3: And those actors playing those roles, how did they feel?

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Speaker 3: And how do you feel? Because it would have been

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Speaker 3: kind of confronting.

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Speaker 1: It was very confronting, and when you're making a film

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Speaker 1: about this, there's no avoiding the uncomfortable situation. You have

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Speaker 1: to go there. You have to be there recreating a

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Speaker 1: massacre where you're sitting at a sight that you've been

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Speaker 1: sung into through ceremony, smoking ceremony, to be to be

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Speaker 1: able to be allowed on that country, on that land,

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Speaker 1: and to then recreate massacres. It's unlike any The experience

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Speaker 1: of making this film was unlike any film I've ever made.

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Speaker 1: By Far and away.

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Speaker 3: That's so great, and it was.

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Speaker 2: It was uplifting in parts two, devastating, uplifting, beautiful. It

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Speaker 2: was an extraordinary journey to go through as a viewer.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great, I'm glad you guys like that. I'm really

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Speaker 1: proud of it.

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Speaker 3: And would you say, Simon, this is the first time

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Speaker 3: in history that you've had a bigger beard than Jack

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Speaker 3: Thompson in a movie.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd reckon.

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Speaker 3: Because there's Jack. He's no spoiler that, but Jack's beard,

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Speaker 3: he's he doesn't have the Jack Thompson beard. And there's

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Speaker 3: you quite his suite.

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Speaker 1: I am quite his suite. I've got I've got a big,

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Speaker 1: a big one going there on a big old ginger bee.

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Speaker 3: It's like the beard of bees. Well, it's a great

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Speaker 3: movie and we really enjoyed it, and it's certainly worth

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Speaker 3: having a look at. High Ground is in Cinema's January

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Speaker 3: twenty eight. Simon Baker, it's always a treat.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great, great to talk to you, Jonesy and Amanda.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Thank you, Simon.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Simon Jonesy and Amanda's generation