 KOALAS, KANGAROOS, SURFERS AND “THE LORD OF THE RINGS”
Alise Tīfentāle
It's hard to describe Australia and New Zealand as truly exotic lands in the context of art: the traditional art of the Australian Aborigines and the Maoris in New Zealand can be counted as ethnographic material, while all other culture and civilisation was created by immigrants from the Old World (including the convicts sent from Britain in the 18th and 19th century - something that people still joke about). The physical distance and the colonial status that has existed almost up to the present allows Europeans to regard Australia and New Zealand as absolutely (rather than relatively) provincial, as completely out in the sticks and truly the end of the earth, marked on the map of contemporary pop culture only as the birthplace of Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. Things have changed somewhat since the appearance of that wildly popular and impressive trilogy directed by Peter Jackson - the fantasy film masterpiece "The Lord of the Rings" (2001-2003, based on British author J.R.R.Tolkein's novel, which was actually written mostly during the Second World War). It was New Zealand that could furnish real-world locations to serve as the backdrop for the adventures of the protagonists in Tolkein's fantasy world. It seems the film is the best-ever advertisement for New Zealand, portraying it as one big tourist attraction. And it's quite possible that a large section of filmgoers get the impression that in New Zealand you really can come face to face with hobbits, elfs, orcs and so on. |
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