Countryman

This is a superb documentary that turns on the discovery of a fellow man of Croatian heritage by the film maker, Peter Pecotic. Retracing his late father's footsteps from Sydney to Cairns in the 1950s, Peter meets some migrants and their descendants. We see the emotional connection that Australians from Croatia still feel for the Dalmation coast.

Also on his travels he meets artist, Joseph Williams, a Warumungu man in Tenant Creek with a Croatian father. That is, a first Nations man whose Yugoslavian father left him and his mother when Joseph was a lad.

Peter connects Joseph to his Croatian heritage and his family. Country and culture is important to all the characters in this film. The sociology and psychology are explored and Joseph's art comes into sharp focus and his affinity for homeland and ancestry blossoms in a new direction.

Because of the Yugoslavian coincidence, we get a new perspective on the Indigenous connection to home; to country. It is quite a paradox we witness in the unfolding of this true story on-screen. It connects Croatia to Tenant Creek, Joseph's mother's country, through the very perceptive perspective of the lovely and humane Peter Pecotic, and his openness to the material that miraculously comes to him. Peter has a good eye for landscape and characters, and a nose for a great story, the telling of which is impeccable.