Director: Warwick Thornton
Australia | 2009 | 101 minutes | English and Warlpiri with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Samson & Delilah is the heartbreaking story of two teens who weather loss and homelessness with their own brand of love. Samson, whose only escape is huffing gasoline, lives in a rundown shack with his brother. Delilah lives and works with her grandmother, creating indigenous art to sell to tourists. But tragedy strikes and the pair are forced to flee; Samson gets kicked out of his house and Delilah’s grandmother dies. Beaten and shunned by their communities, these two lovers steal a car and leave everything behind, except each other. Samson & Delilah was on the short list for the 2010 Academy Awards® Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and was winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2009.

“100% Fresh” — rottentomatoes.com

“And yet finally their love survives, their damaged, bruised, crippled and painful love: Samson does not seem to have renounced his addictive ways, nor does Delilah require it. She just loves him, and that is that. Is it hopeful, or entirely hopeless? I don’t know—but found myself finally moved by this desperately sad film and by the performances of Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson as the lovers themselves.”
—Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

Warwick Thornton is one of Australia’s most promising contemporary filmmakers, winning numerous domestic and international awards as a cinematographer, writer and director. A powerful representative voice for indigenous themes, Thornton’s insightful camera reveals stories resilient with spirit. Thornton comes from the Katej people of central Australia and has lived in nearby Alice Springs all his life, apart from a three-year
stint at the Sydney- based Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) where he studied cinematography, graduating in 1997.
Thornton honed his media skills at the Central Australian Media Association of Australia (CAAMA), which encourages members of indigenous communities to be involved in the production of their own film, television and radio and where he worked as a DJ, camera trainee, and cameraman. Attending AFTRS was a decision that has paid off, with the selection of his debut feature, Samson & Delilah, in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. “There’s a certain amount you can learn at the film school –it’s a big toy shop – but you actually have to live a life and be a human being, really, to make films,” he says.
His passion has always been to document the stories of his community – for them and about them, and share them on a big screen. “There’s no point writing unless you’ve got something to say and a fire burning in you,” he says. That ‘fire’ has fuelled a recent wave of dynamic and inspiring aboriginal stories, developed and supported by government initiatives through the Indigenous branch of Screen Australia (the former Australian Film Commission). Thornton was a product of the first series in 1995–96, From Sand to Celluloid.
Thornton’s impressive short film track record certainly augments a promising career. His first short, Payback (1996) at Telluride Film Festival, Mimi (2002) starring Sophie Lee (The Castle), Green Bush (2005) at Sundance Film Festival, and Nana (2007) won the Crystal Bear award, as the best short at the Berlin Film Festival. The ideas for his highly anticipated debut, Samson & Delilah took about two years to ponder but only one week to write. The tale of outback love and tragedy is set in an isolated community in central
Australia’s Simpson Desert. Thornton describes it as “an unconventional and understated love, borne out of necessity that develops out of survival with the growth of trust between what society sees as ‘two untouchables’.”
The Cannes invitation is the culmination of his career. “I’ve been making films for twenty
years and this has always been my dream,” said Thornton, “but even in my wildest
dreams I never thought it would happen. It is SO cool.”

Kath Shelper produced the feature film Samson & Delilah with Warwick Thornton which won the Camera d’Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. She also produced Beck Cole’s documentary about the making of the film – Making Samson & Delilah – which premiered at Melbourne Film Festival and screened at Telluride Film Festival alongside the feature film.

Kath has made lots of short films including Plains Empty (Sundance), Green Bush (Best Panorama Short Film, Berlin Film Fest), Confessions of a Headhunter (Best Short, Australian Film Institute Awards), Above the Dust Level (Best Comedy, Melbourne Film Festival), and House Taken Over (nominated, Australian Film Institute Awards). She also produced the TV series Bit of Black Business of which Nana (Crystal Bear, Berlin Film Fest) and Hush (Audience Prize, Creteil Women’s Film Fest) were part of. She received the Inside Film Award for Rising Talent in 2005.

Kath is currently producing Beck Cole’s first feature Here I Am, which will be released next year.

There will be a discussion with producer Kath Shelper following the film.

View the trailer of Samson & Delilah here

Co-hosted with Embassy of Australia