Ellis Park Review
Beautiful people do beautiful things. This statement is true for Warren Ellis, the celebrated musician known for his work with The Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He is the subject of Ellis Park, the latest film and first documentary from director Justin Kurzel. The film follows the eccentric Aussie through a turbulent chapter in his life as he visits the wildlife sanctuary he co-founded in Sumatra, Indonesia, where trafficked and abused animals are nursed back to health or given forever homes by animal activists and wildlife conservationists.
The film begins with Warren in his childhood home of Ballarat, Victoria, where he revisits the familiar, meaningful haunts of his past, such as the local cinema, church and community garden. We watch as he performs music in these places, letting his violin echo through the empty, memory-filled spaces. Director Justin Kurzel had Ellis choose locations that held personal meaning, and the result is deeply moving. Watching the iconic, bushy-bearded musician, dressed in his trademark sharp suits, perform his wonderfully eccentric music in such personal spaces gives the film an immediate emotional resonance.
The film is woven from many narrative threads, painting a rich portrait of Warren Ellis’s life, which he likens to the frenetic energy of Goodfellas, specifically the scenes in which Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill, gripped by cocaine-fuelled paranoia, scrambles through an endless list of errands while trying not to ruin his pasta sauce. The first half of the documentary attempts to trace Ellis’s roots, capturing grounded moments as he sips tea and discusses music with his elderly parents in the cluttered comfort of his childhood home. We’re given glimpses into a family dynamic that hasn’t always been smooth sailing. However, the warmth and affection between them is unmistakable, especially when they speak about the creative process of writing music and how it evolves with age. Their shared laughter is genuine and enveloping, offering one of the film’s most authentic insights into who Warren truly is.
He’s a man full of stories, and in Ellis Park, he shares some of his favourites. There are childhood memories of waking in the night with his brother to find a travelling circus of clowns performing in their backyard; tales from his famous friendship with Nick Cave; and the oddly profound significance of a piece of stolen chewing gum that once belonged to the ethereally talented mouth of Nina Simone. These anecdotes, equal parts surreal and sincere, add texture to Ellis’s character, revealing an artist whose life is as unpredictable and poetic as the music he creates.
While we get to know Warren, Kurzel slips in images and anecdotes from the wildlife sanctuary, and its leader, Femke den Hass, who describes the sanctuary’s goal of caring for abused animals until they are fit to return to the wild, or providing a home for them to live out the rest of their days with dignity. We rejoin Warren as he prepares for his first visit, finally unpacking a fruity shirt he bought during the COVID-19 lockdowns, saved specifically for this occasion. He seems uncharacteristically nervous about meeting the team, unsure of how he’ll fit into their world. But once there, surrounded by the sanctuary’s staff and animals, Warren begins to realise that this community is made up of people just like him, those who live and work from the heart.
The cinematography in Ellis Park is immeasurably beautiful. The dense rainforests and commanding landscapes convey a spirit of grandeur and natural majesty, which is woven throughout the rest of Kurzel’s footage. These moments, intercut with Warren hunched over his instruments, composing the film score, while clouds drift across a blazing tropical sky, create a striking emotional rhythm. Like Warren Ellis, who has the unique ability to make emotion manifest with his music, Kurzel’s work embodies life-affirming emotion about good in the world and the people who bring it to life.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a lifelong fan or a stranger to Warren Ellis; Ellis Park will stir up a well of emotion in you. Especially a scene in which Warren plays his violin for a group of rescued meerkats, which might be the most memorable cinematic moment of the year.
★★★★
In UK cinemas on September 26th / Warren Ellis, Femke den Haas, John Ellis, Diane Ellis / Dir: Justin Kurzel / Conic / 15
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