JUSTIN KURZEL

Snowman
Not far into any conversation with Justin Kurzel about his film Snowtown, it becomes clear that, to him, the two most important aspects of the project are veracity and respect.

“I have great affection for the place,” he says, speaking of the Adelaide satellite where the film is set. “And I never wanted to come across like I was judging it, like I was making it out to be this urban ghetto. It was really important to me to humanise this place that had gotten a really bad rep and a really bad name from these extreme events.”

The ‘extreme events’ of which he speaks are, of course, the numerous murders committed by prolific serial killer John Bunting and a number of accomplices, including the young Jamie Vlassakis. It’s a dark chapter of Australian history, and one that the seasoned commercial and music video director was surprised to find himself documenting.

“I was sent the script out of the blue by Warp Films when I was talking to them about another project,” he explains. “I was just really blown away by the events. I had no idea of the sort of perspective that Shaun [Grant, the screenwriter] had found on the events. My information about the Snowtown Murders was pretty one-dimensional from the media. I had no idea about the Jamie Vlassakis character, and also the sort of community that was in the film. The other thing that also interested me enormously was, I was born in Gawler, which is only 10 or 15 minutes away from where the murders happened, so I was really intrigued and curious as to why they happened very close to where I spent my formative years, and was very interested to find out how and why something like this could have happened.”

And although Kurzel’s film delves deeply into the formative events surrounding the killings, he is reticent to give any pat answers about the causes of the crimes. “I don’t think there are any answers. I don’t think there are any simple conclusions as to why and how it happened. It happened over six years, 12 people were killed and there were many personalities involved. I never wanted the film to be presumptuous enough to answer any of those questions, because I just think it’s too complex. It was a pretty vulnerable community and it was place that had gone through quite a lot of poverty and child abuse, and there were patterns that kept on repeating themselves. I felt there was a desperation about the place.”

To Kurzel’s mind, it was that desperation that allowed Bunting to flourish. “What fascinated me most was how a person like John Bunting was able to come into the community and then very, very quickly seduce them and then exploit that vulnerability. I found it was a cautionary tale about turning a blind eye to those sort of communities, and what happens when there’s an evil force makes themselves present, and becomes influential amongst those who are present.”

_TRAVIS JOHNSON