Akleyolton The island is most know for its beaches, and the exotic fantasy are created in the minds of most who don't actually live on an island. The sea which brought us together is what keeps us apart. The life of the islander is a contradiction, sometimes its a prison sentence , and other times its sunshine, and beaches in paradise . This film is a touching story about survival and it shared the reality of the island, its people and their relation with the rest of the world.

Kirpianuscus a film who impress for its delicate grace. a story about small things. about a novel as bridge between people, about violence, sacrifice, ideal, new beginnings. but, more important, superb manner to create, explore and define his character by Hugh Laurie. in same measure, the film of Xzannjah Matsi who does a touching, subtle, bitter role in the wise manner to define it as living proof of a special form of miracle. a film who must see. for its strange beauty, for the status of inspired adaptation, for discover a world who seems be too far in too many senses. a perfect puzzle. who it has not the ambition to show. only to remember. a film about a place and a period who gives the best definition for each place and period defined by tensions, war and courage of ordinary people.

Mike Naughton I have to say at the beginning of this that I was unable to understand some of the dialog and lost parts of the story at times. And I must also say that when it became apparent that we were witnessing the exact same scenarios that we see played out in our evening news coverages of how bullies with weapons can do whatever they want to do I became less interested. (And, the careless and unintelligently provocative behavior by Mr Watts in the face of mindless malevolence seemed more aimed toward "point making" than realism and sense. But that is my POV.)I do suppose that makes me rather superficial. And I do wonder if the way we might actually stop the many injustices wrought by visceral, knee-jerk, gun-toting, undereducated and over-stimulated para-military types is by watching their acts of desensitizing brutalities. But no, I think we then become part of their sickness. There is a part of me that disagrees with my squeamishness. I remember seeing a movie called Africa Addio when I was young. I was a senior in High School and some friends and I went to a drive-in to see this along with Mondo Cane. Mondo Cano (World gone to the dogs) was moving. Africa Addio was nightmarish. Human beings were cold and cruel, and it was real. It was a documentary. We saw things that were removed from our evening news programs. I have to mention how riveting the presence of Xzannjah Matsi as Matilda is in this film. We see more in the goings on by watching her face than if we turned the camera around and watched for ourselves. And she did not use histrionics to display her thoughts and feelings. Her eyes absorbed the scenes and we felt the atrocities like a blow to the most vulnerable parts of ourselves. Hugh Laurie was excellent as well. Healesville Joel as Matilda's mother Dolores pulled my emotions in several directions. The actress was very powerful. Early on in the story Dolores expresses the idea that a belief in a structured theology is necessary in order to know right from wrong. And she implies that to see evil as a metaphor also evil. Kind of puts the act of thinking into an impossible position to exist or function at all. Superstition and fear seem to rule her reasoning mind. We find later that she is a woman of tremendous courage. Both she, Tom Watts and a little boy "poked the bear in the eye" and the lives of others lost the daily benefit of their presence. Probably a greater loss than the impact of their sacrifice.I won't speak more of this movie. It is probably better rated at 8 than the 5 I gave it. I have to rate as I feel after I see a film. I recommend this movie but I think we need to be careful of damaging our view of mankind too much. That is the game of those who want us to play out their sad, sick scenarios of dehumanization. They want to enlist our interest and engage our fear.

pajevich I really enjoyed watching this movie, and I got much more than I expected. This movie shows universality of the world, despite cultural differences. It shows sorrow and joy, the good and bad in people. Hugh Laurie is truly a magnificent actor, who very well portrayed mysterious man yet full of sorrow. It shows how life is unpredictable, how life is simultaneousness of good and bad things. When I finished watching this movie I remembered the famous quote "there is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future". If you decide to watch this movie you'll enjoy the wonderful scenes filmed in Papua New Guinea and New Zealend, wonderful acting by Hugh Laurie and Xzannjah Matsi, story about life how it really is. This movie was filmed two years ago and it is still relatively unknown. I hope this will change because this is a movie that everyone should see. This is maybe not a movie for Oscars (not that it's not better than many movies that had won best picture), but you will enjoy watching it, you'll feel sad at the moments, but you will think about it later on.