A man rocks up on the beach.
He has three chickens.
And a whole lot of herbs
and spices.
You know what I mean?
Why is he there?
One man,
one beach,
some chickens,
a bunch of herbs and spices,
and approximately
zero explanations.
That is the premise
for the brand new documentary
series 'The Beach',
and the man subjecting himself
to this strange experiment,
is this guy.
Warwick Thornton,
the award-winning director of
Samson and Delilah,
Sweet Country,
and the most recent season
of Mystery Road.
But what's really going on
under the surface?
15 years of
every night there's an after party.
It's sort of a mental, physical
kind of drain and collapse
of your body and your mind and
just needed a break, really.
And what better way to have
a break than to
make someone pay for it.
And on behalf of SBS,
you're welcome.
And everyone's like,
'we have no idea what he's doing'
and I was like 'well I don't know
what I'm going to do either',
you know what I mean?
But let's just go watch this
village idiot get stronger
and stronger through
talking to chickens.
Yeah, those chickens copped
some abuse.
Yeah, the poor darlings.
The great thing about chickens
is they're brilliant listeners
and they don't talk back.
I'll grab a spear later and
take you for a walk.
You can come hunting with me,
hey?
You want to come hunting with me?
In terms of how you actually
made it though,
how many of you
are actually up there
to make that experience?
About five.
Right.
I got my son to shoot it
because if I was going to skitz out,
the best person to skitz out
in front of is your son.
Because you know,
they kind of know you.
I can hear a pretty good
argument against that too
but yeah.
Yeah! Well you know...
If it were a stranger
as a cinematographer,
well I think,
emotionally I wouldn't have
been confident enough to
talk and to,
to live and to,
to forget
that they're there shooting.
Grow you little
bathtub,
grow,
grow.
The food in it, in particular,
is even more mesmerising
than most,
are you actually that good a cook?
Oh,
shut up!
You know, I've spent my life
cooking.
One of the first things
I was taught
as a camera assistant,
if you learnt to cook,
you'll get on better with
the rest of the crew
and if you get on better
with the rest of the crew,
you'll have a better shoot.
It's both like poetic and
really practical.
Yeah!
So I can cook.
And they are my dishes.
What was the best thing
you learnt about yourself
making it?
That I've actually had
a really amazing life.
And...
That sort of shell,
that little fragile egg
that you are
is actually incredibly strong.
Was there anything about
the process of doing it
that surprised you?
Sitting in the editing suite,
and looking at yourself
and then starting to
judge your visual appearance.
And wanting to use the shots
where you look
more handsome than the shots
where you look like s***t.
You're supported to look like s***t
and you do look like s***t
and you feel like s***t
so you should be
not trying to cut yourself like
you've just gone through
hair and makeup,
you know what I mean?
And so you start looking for
the real dregs of your face
and your humanity
and the pits of your emotions
and start playing with those
because that's what
you're here for.
By doing that,
it sort of freed me a lot more
as well.
There's a thousand shots of me
looking like s***t,
there's only about three shots
where I look fantastic, so.
So the ratios good?
So if we just used all the
"good" you know,
photoshopped-
it would just be a
thirty second commercial.
Yeah.
Come to Western Australia!
Yeah! Absolutely.
This is a very much
a romantic version of
self-isolation.
It's the self-isolation we wish
we were having.
People are so pressured
right now to be
better human beings.
Just survive
the next couple of months.
You know, you don't have to
write the next
Kerouac On The Road.
You don't have to,
you know what I mean?
Don't have to do anything!
Just survive.
Keep your brain clear
and your body healthy.
Warwick,
congratulations and thank you
for talking to us.
No worries brother.
Cool bananas.