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Set in Australia, Samson & Delilah is a grim and stomach-churning story of two aboriginal children living an impoverished life in a trailer-park town in the desert. Very loosely inspired by the biblical tale of Samson, this film has almost no dialogue but high-caliber performances from child actors Rowan McNamera and Marissa Gibson. Samson and Delilah leave their town in wake of tragedy only to deal with the terrible realities of urban homelessness, prejudice, violence, and hunger. Fending off hunger pangs with inhalers and by shoplifting, the characters travels through what feels like hell and back, managing to sell the film’s predictable message of love. The story proves poignant and the scenery often beautiful, but be warned, its horrors will make the steeliest-stomached audiences nauseous, and the most optimistic ones depressed.
Samson and Delilah opens today at the West End Cinema.