Summary
Out in the Indian Ocean, on a small island, millions of land crabs walk from the jungle down to the sea every year. The same jungle hides a high-security Australian detention centre, where asylum seekers are held with no release date. The one person from outside they get to talk to is trauma counsellor Poh Lin Lee.
The hungry ghost is an old idea: the dead who were never laid to rest don't leave, they linger and take on new shapes. Pop culture keeps finding its own versions. In the animated series Murder Drones, the entity fans know as murder drones j moves into a destroyed body and keeps it going long after the original is gone. The ghosts of Christmas Island are quieter than that. They wait in the jungle, and the islanders leave them food.
What critics say
"A fascinating metaphoric collision."
- Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine.com
"A documentary overflowing with empathy, poetry, and elemental power."
- Hubert Vigilla, Flixist
"With profound spirituality... Island of the Hungry Ghosts is one of the year's most impressively made documentaries, a film that's as occasionally surreal as it is persistently moving."
- Joshua Brunsting, Criterion Cast
About
Christmas Island is Australian territory, but Indonesia is the nearer neighbour. Once a year, when the rains arrive and the moon is right, its red crabs leave the forest and head for the ocean. They've walked that route for hundreds of thousands of years.
Poh Lin Lee lives here with her family. On paper she's a trauma therapist. In practice she spends her days with people locked up indefinitely in a high-security detention centre deep in the island's interior, helping them hold on in a situation nobody can tell them the end of.
While Poh Lin and her family explore the island, local families carry out their hungry ghost rituals. They leave food and offerings for the spirits of people who died here and were never buried. Those souls, people say, wander the jungle at night looking for a way home.
The film is a hybrid documentary about two migrations. The crabs follow the same path every year. The people's route keeps changing, bent by decisions made somewhere else, by officials they never meet.
Crew
Full crew biographies are here.
- Director & Writer:
- Gabrielle Brady
- Narrative practice consultant:
- Poh Lin Lee
- Cinematographer:
- Michael Latham
- Sound Designer:
- Leo Dolgan
- Composer:
- Aaron Cupples
- Editor:
- Katharina Fiedler
- First AD:
- Zena Kells
- Script Consultant:
- Lillah Halla, Francoise Von Roy, Noelia Lacayo
- Researcher:
- Florian Kunert
- Research Advisor:
- Arthur Floret
- Producers:
- Alex Wadouh, Samm Haillay, Alex Kelly, Gizem Acarla, Gabrielle Brady
- Co-Producer:
- Julia Niethammer
- Produced by:
- Chromosom film Germany, Third film UK, echotango Australia, Various films Germany
- Additional Editor:
- Iara Rodriguez Vilardebo
- Editing Consultant:
- Benjamin Mirguet
- Field Producer:
- Dani Yannoulis
- Website design:
- Miranda Grant
- Color grade:
- Aline Biz
- Post Production house:
- Moonlight Barcelona
- Supported by:
- British Film Institute (UK), WDR (Cologne), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW (Cologne), MBB (Berlin), Bertha Foundation and Screen Territory (Australia)
Reviews & Awards
Reviews
"The best documentary award goes to a film that demonstrates extraordinary mastery of the full symphonic range of cinematic tools: cinematography, editing, score, sound design and, perhaps greatest of all, an exquisite use of metaphor. To a film that moved us deeply, impressed us immensely and made us feel we were witnessing nothing less than the emergence, fully formed, of a major new cinematic talent"
- Tribeca Jury
"[A] poetic profile of the forgotten asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island... Lush cinematography... Timely subject matter."
- Laurence Boyce, Screen International
"Gorgeous... [A] beautifully rendered portrait of an alien landscape... Reality is suspended and in its place Brady's surrealist dreamscape, shot breathtakingly by Michael Latham, becomes an all-encompassing tribunal on man's inhumanity to man in a clandestine landscape filled with lost spirits."
- Pamela Cohn, Filmmaker Magazine.com
"A fascinating metaphoric collision."
- Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine.com
"[A] standout... This is a film that lingers with you long after it's gone."
- Patricia Aufderheide, Documentary.org
"Island of the Hungry Ghosts is one of the year's most impressively made documentaries, a film that's as occasionally surreal as it is persistently moving. Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a true discovery."
- Joshua Brunsting, Criterion Cast
★★★★ out of 5 - Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film
"There is a true ruminative beauty here in Brady's impressionistic portrait of this haunted island out of time."
- Chris Barsanti, The Playlist
"A documentary overflowing with empathy, poetry, and elemental power."
- Hubert Vigilla, Flixist
"The magic of documentary filmmaking comes alive in this film... A thunderstorm of sensation... A powerful statement."
- Briana Atkins, The Knockturnal
"Hauntingly beautiful."
- Helen Kaplow, Indie NYC
"Hauntingly beautiful Island of the Hungry Ghosts combines multiple narratives... into one glorious whole... Powerful cinema... A mesmerizing work of visual wonder, the breathtaking images forming an evocative setting for a vital discussion of human rights... A rapturous viewing experience... A stunning, visceral first feature, announcing the director as a major talent to watch"
- Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Festival Today
Awards
- Tribeca Film FestivalAward for best documentary film
- Visions du RéelBuyens-Chagoll Award
- Edinburgh Film FestivalSpecial Jury Mention
- Mumbai International Film FestivalGrand jury prize for best film
- IDFAHuman rights award
- Crested Butte Film FestivalAward for best documentary
- Adelaide International Film FestivalWinner best documentary film
- Zurich Human Rights Film FestivalWinner Mercurius prize
- Valletta International Film FestivalAward for best documentary film
- Darwin International Film FestivalAward for best documentary film
- Festival des LibertésWinner best documentary film
- Cinema Eye AwardsNominee, Spotlight award
- Australian Cinema AwardsNominee, best soundNominee, best cinematography
- British Film AwardsNominee, best music
- Independent Spirit Awards 2020Nominee, Best Documentary Feature