Thorne in his stride

Film Graduate Claims Silver Bear At Berlinale

by Matt Webber

Upwards of 400 films vie for major Golden and Silver Bear Awards at the annual Berlin International Film Festival, or ‘Berlinale’.

This year, Bond University Film and Television alumnus Matthew Thorne’s short film Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) won the Silver Bear Jury Prize Short Film from an entry pool of over 4000 initial submissions and 20 screened films. This is the first time Australians have ever won a Silver or Gold Bear in competition.

The film follows Yankunytjatjara writer/ performer Derik Lynch (who co-wrote and co-directed the film) as he makes a road trip from an oppressive white city life in Adelaide to his remote Anangu community in the centre of Australia.

“We never made the film with the intention of winning awards,” said Thorne (Class of 2012).

“We made it because we believed it was an important story to tell, and an important one that Derik and I told together."

“There’s a great quote from a Bundjalung friend of Derik’s who said to me one night after he saw the film, ‘we’re too early for reconciliation because we haven’t had the conciliation yet’. So, I think in the spirit of an act of conciliation it was important that Derik and I made the film, and to tell his story as an initiated Aboriginal man living across many worlds.”

Thorne says the idea for the film arose after a chance encounter at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2018.

“I was dancing, and Derik approached me. He asked me what I did. I told him I was a filmmaker. He told me he was an actor. He said, ‘You should put me in a film!’. Over the next few years our film idea went from making a film featuring Derik to making a film about him.”

So, what comes next for a filmmaker who’s just been recognised at one of the most significant film festivals in the world?

“The thing that I’ve learned in the last year or so is that getting a feature film made is so deeply interwoven with the script. I’m excited to take time now to work with writers to put together scripts with great stories at their heart."

Thorne earned a full scholarship to study at Bond when he won the 2011 Best Overall Filmmaker Award at BUFTA with his films Tubby and Broken Thoughts He also won Best Screenplay at the 2013 Bond University CentreScreen Awards with his graduation film Where Do Lilacs Come From?