MIFF NOTES: The Family (2016, Dir. Rosie Jones)

I wasn’t around Melbourne when The Family were big news. We had our own 60 Minutes pumped sect in Perth, the Rajneeshis (or the Orange People), which was the go-to point for general othering and middle class tut-tutting. So I missed this story of the messiah-complexed Anne Hamilton-Byrne and her brace of Aryan featured children tucked away in Eildon in the 1980s.

There’s a lot here to digest for a newcomer, doses of LSD, starvation, forced psychiatric incarceration, and ongoing abuse. Not to mention the unsettling devotion. But despite her clear tenderness for those affected, director Rosie Jones hasn’t framed any of this for maximum effect.

It is clear that Jones had a wealth of interview footage from many of the children involved and it is a testament to her commitment to their story that she has found a way to earn their trust. Unfortunately, much of their shared testimony feeds into a churning, shapeless drone of information, with little perceivable foothold for audiences. Some moments are overplayed, most are underplayed and the investigation, which could have given real structure to the Jones’ unpacking of the events (especially with lead detective Lex de Man on-board and the subject of the film’s most lengthy recreations) drops in and out with no real sense of progression.

Only the opening (a grating exposé style introduction priming the film for television release) condenses the story with any sense of drama. And while entertainment is not Jones’ goal here, nor should it be, without a narrative lifeline The Family just swallows.

★★☆

The Family screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.