Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow
90 min
In 2004, Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach collaborated with the Australian Art Orchestra to create Kura Tungar – Songs from the River: A musical journey through love and country.
Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow is, in part, a concert film of Hunter and Roach’s performance of the above show. It’s also a document of that concert’s creation and its import to Australia, interspersed with personal reflections and interviews that contextualise the beautiful music.
But this is also a meditative expression of the music’s meaning, with performances playing over transfixing footage of light playing over water, of ashen trees densely knotted, of the sun’s slow descent towards the horizon. Director and producer Philippa Bateman (Jindabyne) allows her camera to drift through country like a river itself, capably capturing the significance of this concert to our land.