The Process of Individual Enlightenment in Go Back to Where You Came From, a Documentary by Ivan O'mahoney

The evolution of an individual is enriched by their distinct surroundings. An individual’s past may impede discovery but the extent of discovery is dependent upon the individuals own enthusiasm and disposition to make discoveries and connections whether it be pre-meditated or unexpected and therefore may conjure up new values in an individual and have a renewed perspective of themselves and the world. Go Back To Where You Came From, a documentary created by Ivan O’Mahoney exhibits a real refugee experience involving 6 individuals each having distinct opinions on refugees. Throughout the duration of 3 episodes, each individual goes through change and undergo significant discoveries. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, a recount of Agnes’ remaining life, who is sent to wait her final days on the farm of a District Officer. As the day’s countdown, Agnes tells her story of betrayal, abandonment and longing and the family realise it was not all as they had assumed. The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is an oil painting composed in 1818 by Caspar David Friedrich, a German artist. The painting surfaces the idealism that understanding nature can lead to clarification and revelations.

Human perception may evolve in an environment where the potential for discoveries is existent and can incite new interpretations. In the oil painting ‘The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’ composed by Caspar David Friedrich, the ambiance stimulates self-reflection and provokes spiritual discovery. The man is situated on a rocky ledge, with his gaze across the clouds and to the faraway mountains. The rocks symbolize the earth and nature and beyond it the clouds signify the traveller’s future eternal life. He looks beyond, readily waiting for the eternal life journey. The man’s back is to the viewers which enables them to see the world through his perspective and also make his character mysterious. The location he is surrounded by acts as a catalyst for his self-discovery. The rocks symbolize the earth and nature and beyond it there are clouds signifying the traveller’s future eternal life there is light coming from beneath the rock, illuminating the fog. The man’s body language is a confident stance with an advanced leg and hand in pocket. The artist’s main attentiveness was the contemplation of nature and his work pursues to communicate a subjective and emotional response to the natural world. An instant of sublimity reflected by the man and through the observation of nature, reunification with the spiritual self.

Similarly, Adam is a 26-year-old life guard from Cronulla with strong opinions towards refugees, claiming that the government is “spending millions of dollars on housing these criminals” and that refugees should “play by the rules.” Adam was present at the Cronulla riots in 2007 implying Adam has strong views on the topic. In episode one, the sinister style background music with the addition of the strained voiceover, the camera cuts to Adam who is shaken by the encounter with refugees at the Villawood detention centre. The detention centre was one of the main triggers to his change and individuals he met had reformed his views on refugees slightly. It was revealed that many refugees in the detention centre will not receive acceptance into the country and therefore it will incite suicide in many individuals in attempt to avoid going back to where they had all come from. When talking about their experiences to the camera, Adam was literally left speechless as opposed to Glenny and Darren and he later spoke up after taking a moment of comprehension. The main reason for the change was because of Adam’s surroundings and the people he had met encouraged him to renew previous perceptions, although not entirely but progressively.

The scope of an individual formulating an emotional discovery is concurrent to their willingness to create links and connections with places and people and also depends on the individuals past occurrences which may act as a barrier to discovery. Burial Rites, a novel by Hannah Kent follows the remaining life of Agnes Magnusdottir, formerly a maid and presently a convicted murderer awaiting her execution under the security of the Jónstodóttir family. Born as an illegitimate child into a world of poverty, she was distraught as a child being “bundled along from farm to farm.” She had limited emotional connections and the very few she had were detached until she “didn’t have a friend left in the world.” Though at first Agnes was treated disapprovingly and with hostility, eventually she is treated decently. In the last several months of her life, Agnes succeeds in living with dignity and completes her chores courteously. She reveals her story of abandonment, loss, abuse and poverty piece by piece to her spiritual advisor Reverend Tóti. Although the author eludes revealing whether or not Agnes is guilty of murder, she allows the reader to experience Agnes’ heartbreaking life through her own words. Her previous life had been marred with betrayal hence why Agnes hesitated before sharing. Her feeling of worthlessness manifested by years of grief and loneliness led to a yearning for acceptance and desiring love.

In the same way, Darren a businessman from western Sydney and also an ex-militant has strong views on refugees. His work status had lead him to believe that all refugees were economic refugees and choose Australia’s over the country they came from. Darren was also completely opposed to refugees carrying no documentation of identity as it is against his principles. Darren was persistent and defensive hence why he took more time than the others before seeing any slight change. In the Malaysian raid, while some of the others seemed to be left stunned and were not responding and played no part in the capturing of refugees, Darren became a frontrunner during the raid and helped out where he could. His ex-military background conveying him as desensitised and experienced a certain thrill and sense of adventure during the raid. The ominous background music and Darren’s poker face portrayed him as unemotional. The hand held camera inside the van stimulated the confronting atmosphere along with the intensified music and cuts to Darren’s impassive facial expression which had stayed throughout most of the raid as opposed to a few others who were clearly shaken.

Discovery allows a new interpretation of life and it can initiate fresh values in an individual. In Go Back to Where You Came From, Raquel an unemployed 21-year-old is a self-proclaimed racist and admits she “hates Africans.” Throughout the beginning of the journey, Raquel was depicted as impatient and unwilling to meet new people and understand their life. She struggled to get along with the Maude family as opposed to some of the others and also struggled to create emotional connections with the refugees. Raquel appeared to be resistant in showing emotion and had an impassive face for most of the first two episodes. However, towards the end she starts to show emotions for example when she broke down at the UN camp. In the response, Raquel was shown to be a changed person with different views on the refugees but more on an emotional view rather than a political opinion.

In the same way in Burial Rites Agnes’ character was portrayed by her actions, “I was two dead men. I was burning farm. I was a knife. I was blood.” Upon settling in with the Jónstodóttir family, Agnes was treated with hostility. But Margaret the house wife, seemed to have a slight soft spot for Agnes although she refused to show it. Steina, one of the daughters appear to grow fond to Agnes but Lauga stays unreceptive to make any interaction. In Margaret, Steina and Reverend Tóti, Agnes held a position in their hearts till her execution and the discovery of the difficult life Agnes had lived previously conjured sympathy. The new interpretation of life conveyed in The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is through the sea of clouds below him from standing on a high mountain. The man’s posture indicates he dominates the life of this world and looks with admiration and early awaits his eternal life. The wanderers position on top of the hill portrays that the individual seems insignificant to the nature around him, provoking feelings of self-reflection and self-realisation. The fog has an ethereal ambiance suggesting aloneness with nature can be correlated with physical and spiritual fulfilment.

Putting yourself in a confronting position as well as being willing, discoveries can be made. An individual’s surroundings may act as a catalyst to discovery as displayed in the painting ‘The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’ and also in Go Back To Where You Came From. An individual’s past may conjure up barriers to discoveries such as Agnes’ past and Darren’s military past kept him highly opinionated on the subject. Discoveries also lead to new opinions and interpreting life in a different way such as the Jónstodóttir family in Burial Rites whom all were highly prejudiced towards Agnes but gradually change their opinions after hearing the truth from Agnes.