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Ellis Park review – like its subject, Warren Ellis documentary moves to the beat of its own drum

Justin Kurzel’s film about the Bad Seeds and Dirty Three musician, and the animal sanctuary he founded in Indonesia with activist Femke den Haas, is richly cinematic

On several occasions the frame bobs around the subject in a swaying motion as he conducts a one-man hoedown, tearing at his violin with fire-on-the-mountain energy and panache, as if he were a middle-aged Johnny from The Devil Went Down to Georgia, using his bow and strings to rip shreds off Lucifer. Early shots in Ellis Park incorporate lush rainforests and majestic terrain, evoking a spirit of largesse that makes more sense when Kurzel unpacks the titular location: an animal sanctuary in Sumatra, Indonesia, that rehabilitates injured creatures and releases them back into the wild, or provides a dignified final chapter to their lives. There’s a road trip element, with Kurzel accompanying Ellis as he visits places of formative significance, including his childhood home in Ballarat, where he hangs out with his elderly parents and recalls a surreal memory involving a college of clowns in their back yard.

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