Anubumin

In their fourth collaborative film Zanny Begg (Sydney) and Oliver Ressler (Vienna) focus on Nauru, a tiny remote island in the Pacific with 10,000 inhabitants. The title "Anubumin" is Nauruan for "night" and symbolises a certain darkness that surrounds the island.

The film combines a poetic narration written for the film with conversations carried out with whistleblowers in Australia. The narration discusses different voids that have shaped the islands past and future.

The largest void is a physical one, the island is a raised reef consisting of calcite and phosphate on a volcanic base, which since 1906 has been mined and exported to Australia, to fertilise the former colonisers´ farms. When phosphate extraction came to a stop in the 1980s, Nauru was bankrupt and 80 percent of the land area uninhabitable and infertile. In an attempt to generate income, in the 1990s Nauru became a prime money-laundering haven. After the disappearance of soil and money, today Nauru involves in the "disappearance of people" – housing one of Australia´s offshore refugee detention centres.

In a reaction to the criticism on terrible human right situation in the detention centre, Nauru severely restricted access to the island. Four whistleblowers, who worked as doctors and nurses in the detention centre, describe the institutionalised human rights violations in the offshore detention. They uncover a truth the Australian government tries to cover through intimidating people into silence.

Today a new void threatens the island, rising sea-levels threaten the coastal edge, which is the only area left for its inhabitants to live. The people who warden the political and economic refugees of today may well become climate refugees of tomorrow. The night is always darkest before the dawn. (production note)

Footage shot on Nauru by anonymous whistleblowers.

Orig. Title
Anubumin
Year
2017
Country
Austria
Duration
18 min
Category
Documentary
Orig. Language
English
Subtitles
German, English
Downloads
Anubumin (Image)
Anubumin (Image)
Anubumin (Image)
Credits
Director
Oliver Ressler, Zanny Begg
Cinematography
William Robertson
Sound Design
James Brown
Recording
Rudi Gottsberger
Poem
Matthew Hyland
Whistleblower
Anonymous, Mark Isaacs, David Isaacs
Poem
Oliver Ressler
Whistleblower
Hasantha Gunasekera, Alanna Maycock
Colour Correction
Rudi Gottsberger
Narrator
Reneé Gadsen
Thanks to
Gabby Sutherland
Supported by
Wien Kultur MA 7
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour