- This article is about the Australian movie. For the Saudi Arabian city, see Jeddah.
Jedda (1955) was the last movie made by the Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel. The film is most notable for
being the first to star two Aboriginal actors (Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth) in the leading roles,
and also to be the first Australian film shot in colour. Jedda is seen by some as an influential film in early Australian cinema,
as it set a standard for future Australian films to seek, and had a greater international impact than previous Australian films,
especially during a time when Hollywood films were dominating the Australian cinema.
Originally the movie was filmed on location in the Northern Territory in
Australia. The production process itself was a laborious process as the colour technique used, Gevacolor, could only be processed
overseas in England. The film produced was fragile and heat-sensitive, which was a problem as the Northern Territory has a
typically hot climate; film was stored in cool caves to protect it from deteriorating. The last roll of negative was destroyed in
a plane crash on its way for developing in England and the scenes were re-shot at Kanangra Walls in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
The filming took five months to complete, plus post-production work done in Sydney and the year-and-a-half search for a
suitable filming location before filming commenced. Some time after the film was completed and played all around the world, the
film in Gevacolor was found to have faded from aging, and in 1972 the film was reproduced from
original tri-separations found in London.
Plot
Jedda is an Aboriginal girl born on a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. When 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 baby to
illness. She intends to give the baby to one of the Aboriginal women who work on the station, but she 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 stockman in love with Jedda, tracks them 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 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'.
External links
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