BeDevil

BeDevil is an astounding work of Australian cinema which combines iconography drawn from Aboriginal culture and mythology, urban Australia, and popular culture. Comprising three ghost stories, all of which deal with the nature of memory and loss, this film playfully subverts the conventional linkings between aboriginality and spirituality. In “Mr. Chuck” the ghost of a US soldier haunts a billabong. In “Choo Choo Choo Choo” Ruby, (played by director Tracey Moffatt), and her family are haunted by an invisible train. In the final story, “Lovin’ The Spin I’m In”, a grieving Islander mother and her Greek-Australian neighbours are under the spell of the ghostly lovers, Bebe and Minnie. Drawing from influences that span across Aboriginal culture, American and European film, television and popular culture, “BeDevil” announces the birth of a new kind of Australian cinema: both indigenous and multicultural; mystical and sophisticated; innovative and pleasurable. The intoxicating cinematography is by Academy-award winning Geoff Burton and the music score is by Carl Vine. Visually stunning and metaphorically rich, this is a wonderful film.