To date, Carroll Ballard’s Duma is his final archiveable film. It is his fourth archiveable film overall (six films made total) and first since 1996’s Fly Away Home. Like his previous films, these are films about children and animals, simple tales- but never pandering or intelligent. This, like his others, feature some strong exterior photography work
Opens with landscapes of location shooting in Botswana and South Africa—silent, montage of animals
The voice-over of young Alex Michaeletos delivers the exposition—and like Malick’s work with voice-over (and exterior photography) it untethers Ballard’s camera
Campbell Scott and Hope Davis play his parents (Davis showing off a South African accent to pair with her French accent she showed off as a young actress in Home Alone (she works at the airline in Paris- haha))
Has a nice rural Eden vs. abrasive city hell mythology going on. The abrasive television noise even scares Duma the Cheetah.
Great helicopter shots of the tundra
Huck Finn tale
The “lost cub who needs to return home” is obviously the young boy’s story as well- and he does- return back to his farm and rural Eden
[…] Duma – Ballard […]