Character Equals Nothing

I managed to catch the Australian musical brought to screen Bran Nue Dae, yet another disappointing product of the Australian film industry for me. Directed by AFTRS graduate Rachel Perkins, the film was just another one of those Australian films with absolutely no characterisation to drive the plot. The film was clearly written for the stage (and true enough, it was written by the writers who wrote the stage production) with lame dialogue that trails off into the film's atmosphere of 'nothing'. The film didn't allow the characters to develop, and therefore the whole experience felt like a series of events flashing before my eyes in strict succession without any explanation of how and why.



And this is the very problem. Why are Australian films continuously lacking in character development?

I was taught at school last semester that character equals story, yet it doesn't seem to be practised very much in the industry. Another film I saw last year that I was highly disappointed by was Prime Mover. The film had little to zero character development, and every 'dramatic' scene simply failed because of this. How am I, as a member of the audience, supposed to feel for the characters when I know nothing about them?

This frustrates me. This industry is my future, and it frustrates me to think that it is run by people with more or less the same sense as an emu. I patiently await the next 'impressive' film this dumb industry coughs up.