Jedda

This article is about the Australian movie. For the plant genus, see Jedda (plant). For the Saudi Arabian city, see Jeddah.

Jedda
Directed by	Charles Chauvel
Starring	Robert Tudawali Ngarla Kunoth
Music by	Isador Goodman
Release date(s)	1955
Country	Australia
Language	English

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. It won more international attention than previous Australian films, during a time when Hollywood films were dominating the Australian cinema. The director, Charles Chauvel, was nominated for the Golden Palm Award in the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, but lost to the American Delbert Mann for Marty.

After the director's 18-month search for a suitable filming location, the filming took five months to complete, plus post-production work done in Sydney. Jedda was filmed on location in the Northern Territory in Australia. The production process was a laborious as the colour technique used, Gevacolor, could only be processed overseas in England. The film was fragile and heat-sensitive, which was a problem as the Northern Territory had a typically hot climate; during production, the 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. Chauvel re-shot the lost scenes at Kanangra Walls in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

The music was written by Isador Goodman. Elsa Chauvel, the director's wife, replaced large parts of Goodman's score with old-fashioned commercial ‘mood’ music.

Some time after the film was completed and released in locations around the world, the film in Gevacolor was found to have faded from aging. 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. After 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 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 the two 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 with him 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."

Cast

Jedda ... Ngarla Kunoth (Rosalie Kunoth-Monks)
Marbuck ... Robert Tudawali
Sarah McMann... Betty Suttor
Joe... Paul Reynall
Douglas McMann...George Simpson-Lyttle
Peter Wallis... Tas Fitzer
Felix Romeo... Wason Byers
Little Joe... Willie Farrar
Little Jedda... Margaret Dingle

See also

• Cinema of Australia

External links

• Jedda at the Internet Movie Database
• National Film and Sound Archive
• "Jedda", Murdoch University Media Communication and Culture
• "Jedda", National Film and Sound Archive
• Ben Miller 'The Mirror of Whiteness: Blackface in Charles Chauvel's Jedda ' JASAL Special Issue 2007
• Jedda at Australian Screen Online