Directed and produced by film industry figureheads Charles and Elsa Chauvel in 1955, Jedda was the first locally produced Australian narrative feature film shot in colour, the first to star Indigenous Australians, the first to use magnetic sound recording equipment, and the first to go to
the Cannes Film Festival.
Set in the Northern Territory an orphaned Arunta baby is adopted by a white station
owner’s wife. Named ‘Jedda’ after the wild geese that fly overhead, she is raised as the
woman’s own child.
As Jedda grows up, confusion over her place in the world causes her much inner
turmoil. Her confusion is brought to a head when Marbuck, a stranger unknown to her
people, arrives at the homestead looking for work. There is a strong mutual attraction
between the two and Marbuck abducts Jedda.
Marbuck leads Jedda into a life she knows nothing about; she is confronted with a
landscape and traditions with which she has never had contact. Forced to travel into
forbidden lands and with Jedda’s white family closing in, Jedda and Marbuck must fight a
life and death struggle.
Kodak/Atlab Cinema Collection Interviews about Jedda on ABC Radio's Message Stick Article on Jeddy by Paul Kalina in The Age Video interview with Rosalie Kunoth Monks on Australian Biography Online Transcript of interview with Rosalie Kunoth-Monks from ABC-TV George Negus Tonight National Film and Sound Archive's digital restoration of Jedda
