Buoyancy

It grows thrilling to watch. Rathjen's careful script and intensive eye for environmental details deliver all of this to us with a steady rhythm. Repetition, a sense of the daily drag, is key.

It's quite powerful. An inexorable journey into the destruction of this young boy's innocence.

A slow burn. It is steadily tense and horrifying by the end... I can't say I enjoyed it, but it's really good!

[Rathjen] doesn't find spurious poetry in other people's pain or try to glean greater meaning from it. He knows that the suffering is meaning enough.

The film never quite pushes beyond the archetypal nature of its scenario to fully unearth its characters' psychological turmoil.

A taut and urgent message movie that tracks with pounding single-mindedness the horror of human trafficking...

[Buoyancy] shines a light on the nightmares that so many people are living through at this very moment. The tense, minimalist naturalism makes sure that the story gets under the viewer’s skin and pierces their ignorance or complacency.

A stark character study of a child becoming a man while still a child.

Rathjen captures the monotony of this existence and the casual violence of it with mounting tension as Chakra himself becomes brutalised - we view key violent acts, not by watching them, but by observing the effect they have.

This Australian film, written and directed by Rodd Rathjen, is captivating despite its terribly grim subject matter. The acting is very convincing. It is stunningly photographed by cinematographer Michael Latham.