A poetic retelling of the experiences of Joseph Murakami, a fourteen-year-old boy from Darwin, who is summarily rounded up and interned by his government on the basis of his ethnicity, leaving wounds unhealed to this day.
Direction
Gabriel Murphy wields restraint like a weapon. Every frame earns its weight.
Acting
Five actors, one life—seamless temporal stitching through shared trauma.
Director
Gabriel Murphy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Australia interned roughly 4,000 Japanese civilians during WWII—far less documented than US camps, with no formal reparations until 2022's belated acknowledgment. Murphy's film arrived the same year.
Joseph Murakami spent his post-war years believing his experience was singular; the film's release connected him with other surviving internees for the first time. The documentary literally healed through witnessing.
AU
