Immediately after landing in New York, where he is currently in the middle of production of the Netflix series “Black Rabbit,” director Justin Kurzel presented his new documentary “Ellis Park” at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Ellis Park follows the eventful life of composer Warren Ellis and the wildlife sanctuary he co-founded on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Ellis Park combines Ellis’ irreverent humor and boundless creativity with the stirring story of the sanctuary’s role as a home for animals rescued from the black market, making Ellis Park one of the most powerful Australian documentaries of recent years.
Speaking after the film’s premiere at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre, Kurzel said the documentary’s production had a major impact on his upcoming productions, which include Black Rabbit, The Order – a winter thriller starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett and Marc Maron, set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival – and the series The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacobi Elordi, Odessa Young and Ciarán Hinds, which is currently in post-production.
“When we went to Indonesia, we thought we would see a lot of events,” Kurzel said during a question and answer session after the screening. “Pet traders and police in the port, some of the rescues, but none of that happened while we were there.”
“Creatively, it was pretty scary. Usually you go into a film with very strong ideas, and I realized very quickly that I had to bring the people, Warren and the animals into the narrative. What inspired me most when I was there was how to restore the relationship between humans and animals. To see the care and love that the people in the park give to the animals, and to see the animals regain trust and find peace after such tremendous violence was done to them, that was pretty extraordinary. Going to Ellis Park changed my life. I’m not the same person anymore.”
Kurzel has built his career on films that explore the psychology of violence and are often based on true events and characters. “Snowtown,” his 2015 adaptation of “Macbeth,” “True History of the Kelly Gang” and “Nitram” have earned the Australian director a reputation for having a sure hand for challenging material. “Ellis Park” is his first documentary. It was shot in early 2023. Kurzel left the green and humidity of late-summer Sumatra and went to freezing cold Calgary to shoot “The Order.”
Adapted by King Richard screenwriter Zach Baylin from the nonfiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, The Order tells the story of a series of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s. While police and the FBI struggle to predict where the thieves will strike next, a lone agent in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, played by Jude Law, comes to the conclusion that the robberies are part of a larger, much more sinister operation.
For Kurzel, directing the film directly after “Ellis Park” was like switching to “another discipline.”
“You can bring freedom and looseness to tight scripts, and I didn’t think that was possible before,” he told IndieWire. “I thought everything had to be controlled, but now there’s room for spontaneity and changes on the day itself, so things can evolve. I used to really worry about what I was going to do next, whether it was the right thing. After I did Assassin’s Creed, I thought, ‘Why did I do that? I wasn’t ready to do something like that,’ and I regretted it a lot. But looking back now, it happened for a reason. It’s really wonderful when you decide to throw yourself into something and lose yourself in it.”
Kurzel credits this new approach with influencing the actors’ performances in “The Order.” Directing always means working with countless uncontrollable elements, whether it’s the weather in Sumatra requiring an animal rescue on a different day or an actor coming to set angry and with an attitude that changes the performance he had in mind.
“I used to be very resistant to it,” Kurzel said. “But now I love it. I love being open to that feeling that we are all here for a moment and for a reason. Whatever performance comes out now, it marks this day and that can never be taken away.”
After his visit to Venice and having completed the productions he has signed on to, Kurzel said he would like to direct a series of feature films over the next four to five years, telling thematically linked stories with the same ensemble of actors and drawing inspiration from the collaborative approach of directors such as Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes.
“From the beginning, these films have been written and developed together with the actors. Everyone has a part in it,” he said. “That process really fascinates me.”
Rather than exploring the technological limits of filmmaking or pushing for auteur control, Kurzel turns inward to the relationship between director and actor, which was enriched by directing “Ellis Park.”
“When you start doing bigger films and get offers and the ambition that comes with them, you tend to get lost between the toys and the expectations you put on yourself. Films like ‘Ellis Park’ and ‘Nitram’ made me follow my strong instincts that made me want to become a film director. I realised that I need to look for such films and also make films that have a bigger budget and a bigger scope.”
Filming “The Order” was relatively straightforward, he said, partly due to his experience in Indonesia and because the production was characterized by extensive collaboration with the crew and a “best idea wins” approach.
“That’s the most brilliant thing about making a documentary,” he said, smiling. “It’s always a blow to you. That’s why I enjoyed making ‘Ellis Park’ so much, and that’s why I think it contains so much hope and is so inspiring. Because out of the shadows and the darkness that surround these animals comes this incredible beauty and confidence.”
