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AN extreme way of achieving realism in feature films is to cast actors who belong to the same socio-cultural background as the characters they portray. The bill poster in Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and the street urchin in Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! looked so real because Lamberto Maggiorani and Shafiq Syed, both amateurs, actually came from the milieu that was depicted. Such non-professional actors have virtually never established themselves in the movie world, sinking into oblivion not long after rising to fame. A notable exception is Aboriginal icon David Gulpilil, who has defied great odds to carve a niche for himself in Australian cinema. A man of many parts—actor, traditional dancer, storyteller, social activist—the 53-year-old has walked a difficult tightrope in remaining connected to his roots while enjoying the trappings of success. It was British film-maker Nicolas Roeg who literally plucked him from the outback for Walkabout (1971), eschewing the old Hollywood practice of casting white actors as natives. He was just perfect as the wild boy, in tune with nature, who guides two orphaned and marooned white children through the wilderness. Since he was a skilful hunter and tracker, Gulpilil simply performed before the camera what he did in real life—living off the land in Ramingining area of Australia’s Northern Territory. Walkabout brought him stardom, something that was totally alien to his Yolngu tribal culture. He learnt English and stepped outside his natural world for the first time, visiting several countries and meeting celebrities like John Lennon, Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee. He became the first choice for any Aboriginal role, featuring in Storm Boy (1976), The Last Wave (1977) and the smash hit ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (1986). In recent years, he has appeared in Phillip Noyce’s brilliant Rabbit-Proof Fence and Rolf de Heer’s The Tracker, both scathing indictments of the white man’s atrocities against native Australians. De Heer’s latest film Ten Canoes, which won the special jury prize at Cannes last year, is a tribute to Gulpilil and his community. It is regarded as the first full-length feature film made in an indigenous Australian language. (The movie was the country’s official entry to the Oscars in the foreign- language category, but it shockingly failed to get nominated). The non-professional cast is entirely comprised of Yolngu people, with the protagonist played by Gulpilil’s son Jamie. The man himself narrates (in English) the 1,000-year-old story of adultery and revenge. He was also to play a central role in the film, but pulled out due to reasons he hasn’t specified. The magnitude of Gulpilil’s achievement can be gauged by imagining how improbable it would be for an adivasi actor to make it big in Bollywood. It has been quite a struggle for him to straddle two disparate worlds. He has confronted racism on the one hand and ostracism on the other, besides battling against his personal demons—drug abuse and depression. Despite all the travails, his faith in humanity has not been shaken. "We are all one blood. No matter where we come from, we are all one blood, the same," he once said. Words of wisdom and innocence, most relevant in this age of conflict.
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