Utopia came to my notice as one of the most highly regarded documentaries of 2014 but after realizing who its auteur is, I’m sure that it would have gained plenty of attention in any case. It was directed and written by John Pilger, who to many of us in Southeast Asia is probably most well known for Death of a Nation. This is the 1993 documentary about East Timor that is credited with helping to end Indonesian occupation of the territory and allowing it to gain independence.

This one discusses the continuing plight of the Aboriginal people in Pilger’s native Australia. The title refers to a particular Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, the naming of which as Pilger notes, is a mark of supreme irony given the extreme levels of heat, poverty and aridity there. Since Pilger has already covered this in a prior documentary, he notes how living conditions haven’t changed an iota in the intervening 30 years. The irony is that Australia’s economy has gone from strength to strength in the meantime and the country is rightly considered one of the richest on Earth. The reasons for this are manifold and Pilger’s barbs are aimed across a wide swathe of white Australian society: racism, failed government policies, police brutality, even outright grabs for the mineral wealth that lies under Aboriginal lands.

Most of this shouldn’t be news to anyone reasonably informed on the subject but there are plenty of shocking revelations even for someone as cynical as myself. Perhaps the most ghoulish of these is how an aboriginal prison on Rottnest Island is today used as a luxury resort. But more insidious I think is the way that the movers and shakers of Australian society systematically paint Aboriginal men as uncivilized brutes who are barely human in order to justify government intervention in their communities. The example of what is effectively a government-orchestrated smear campaign against the Mutitjulu community is a telling case in point, especially when it is followed up revelations that the land they own is rich in minerals.

Unfortunately Utopia ranges too widely across these complex issues to spend much time on any single one of them. You’re shown and told just enough to stoke your rage over the injustices you see but leaves many questions unanswered. For example, what were the prisoners at Rottnest Island held for? Answer: ordinary crimes. The issue is the appalling conditions under which they were held, not the reason for their imprisonment, making Pilger’s use of the term “concentration camp” highly questionable. Another cheap shot is showing the fantastically expensive tourist bungalows near Uluru and then cutting to the ramshackle and overcrowded Aboriginal huts nearby without giving any information about how tourism in the area is managed or whether or not the Aboriginal community earns any revenue from it. (As far as I can tell from my readings, the local people has officially held title to Uluru since 1985 though the government still manages it and they are entitled to 25 percent of gate fees from tourists.)

I’m guessing that these and other flaws is the reason why despite glowing reviews, at least from left-leaning commentators, Utopia failed to win any awards of significance. Pilger is clearly passionate about the subject and no one should doubt his contention that a gross injustice has been done to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and that this injustice continues today. Unfortunately his unbridled rage and adversarial stance weakens this documentary. His reputation has earned him interviews with important people such as former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and this lends this project weight. Yet the way that he continually interrupts his interlocutors and harangues them without really letting them speak gives bite to right-wing critics who claim that this film is pure propaganda.

For my part, I think this is a great subject matter for a documentary and absolutely more light needs to be shone in this area. Australia gets way too much of a pass on this with regards to the international community especially since as a rich and democratic country, it should hold itself to higher standards. Japan, for example, gets plenty of grief on the subject of its attitudes towards the Second World War but the world seems mostly silent about white Australia’s collective failure to acknowledge that the British were essentially invaders who won their war. As my wife states, white Australians are so numerous and politically powerful and rich that the Aboriginal people represent no threat to them. As such, white Australians can afford to be magnanimous in their victory and at least apologize unreservedly for the harm that has been done.

At the same time, I don’t hide the fact that my politics lean right but I feel uneasy about some of the assertions that Pilger takes for granted here. For example, he lambasts Australia’s policy of forced assimilation and goes further to imply that even assimilation itself wouldn’t be desirable. It seems to me that to partake in the country’s wealth, the Aboriginal population do need to be integrated into the rest of the economy. This means studying, getting jobs and yes, even moving to where the jobs are. I’m uncomfortable with the assertion that the Aboriginals have the right to continue to live as they always have on the lands of their ancestors while also enjoying the same standard of living as other Australians. I think that any plan to improve their lives must necessarily involve modernizing and therefore changing their society.

The upshot is that this is a solid documentary that should be watched by everyone who admires Australia but doesn’t yet know its shameful history towards its Aboriginal population. This is especially relevant to Malaysians I think who frequently think of it as an ideal target for emigration to escape our own local problems with racist policies. But it’s far too polemical to be truly praiseworthy and doesn’t break new ground either in terms of information or conception.