by Annette Basile
Worth: $15.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Luka Raubenheimer, Jaleesa Vincent, Timu Raubenheimer, Mian Vs
Intro:
… well-paced, entirely entertaining and a lot of fun …
When you think of wildlife documentaries, the whispering David Attenborough immediately comes to mind, guiding you through the natural world with high production values and a fat budget. Snakes & Surf Breaks – Indonesia is something entirely different. It’s an indie wildlife doco, spearheaded by Byron Bay-based snake catcher and filmmaker Luka Raubenheimer.
Snake-obsessed Raubenheimer assembles a small team – including his partner, the pro surfer, artist and collaborator Jaleesa Vincent – to traipse through the jungles of Indonesia on a three-month mission in search of the elusive Queen Cobra.
There’s a playful tone here, and splashes of quiet humour, which mostly revolve around team-member and co-producer Mian Vs, who is terrified of spiders and snakes. They’re a gutsy crew, going snake-spotting at night. Raubenheimer is entranced by every snake he finds – he picks up each one that he encounters, handling them briefly and gently before letting the critters slither away into the darkness. The snakes, however, seem far less impressed with Raubenheimer than he is with them. The reptiles can’t wait to get away, and in these brief encounters, one snake goes for Raubenheimer’s face and another manages to bite him. But he is, of course, unfazed.
There’s also a surf angle here, with the team enjoying the waves whenever they can – the wildlife is more of a focus than the surfing, but they do deliver entrancing visuals.
The filmmaker is clearly a conservationist, cataloguing the snakes and providing valuable data for researchers, while aiming to draw attention to the wonders of nature and how it’s under threat from humans.
Raubenheimer is a cooler version of Steve Irwin, and counts the Aussie ‘Crocodile Hunter’ as an inspiration. He also cites auteur Wes Anderson as an influence, and you can see it in the regular shots of the team walking single file while on their journey – there’s something amusing about these shots, and they become a subtle running joke.
Raubenheimer – who has made several self-funded adventure docs, including Six bucks and more dragons (F.U.N) Far Up North – is also a painter and this film has a certain visual style using occasional animated graphics (evidently from partners Jaleesa’s sketch book) that only add to the experience.
Although the storytelling falls down somewhat at the end, Snakes & Surf Breaks is well-paced, entirely entertaining and a lot of fun. It’s happily unpolished yet far from amateur.
Screening at Byron Theatre on 6 December, more info here.
