“Jaydon Martin makes an outstanding feature debut with this absorbing, moving and visually beautiful docufiction...The film’s poetry resides in its thoughtful inactivity, its vernacular spirituality and its gentleness."
Flathead review – a beautiful meditation on life in rural Queensland
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)
“Jaydon Martin’s directorial debut is an evocative hybrid of documentary and narrative drama, presented in beautifully poetic monochrome.”
The 10 best Australian films of 2024: from creepy horror to sublime claymation
- Luke Buckmaster, The Guardian (AUSTRALIA)
“Jaydon Martin’s feature debut combines fiction and documentary to present a ‘compassionate portrait of blue-collar life in Australia’ and has been praised by the jury as a film with ‘calm but touching execution’ and a ‘naturalistic and realistic film at its best.’ The cast was described as ‘exceptionally impressive.’”
Tanaka Toshihiko’s ‘Rei’ Wins Rotterdam Tiger Award, ‘Flathead’ and ‘Kiss Wagon’ Take Jury Prizes
- Rafa Sales Ross, Variety
“Jaydon Martin’s Flathead, an Australian directorial debut shot in luminous black-and-white, was a real standout and Special Jury Award winner. The docufiction, with its distinctive vision of spiritual questing in a poor part of Queensland, maximised absurdist detail and laidback sardonic wit while still conferring dignity on its subjects: Cass, a wiry widower dabbling in born-again Christianity after an early life of heavy drug use and hippie unconventionality; and bodybuilder Andrew, navigating the death of his Chinese immigrant father and the legacy of his steadfast labour."
Reporting from Rotterdam: Unreal realities at IFFR
- Carmen Gray, Sight and Sound's Weekly Film Bulletin
“‘Flathead is about many things: small-town life and the possibility of grace, the bonding rituals of the pub lounge and the racetrack, and perhaps above all, the anxious, conflicted nature of Australian masculinity.... Elegant, patient and humane."
International Film Festival Rotterdam highlights
- Shane Danielsen, The Monthly
“Australian director Jaydon Martin's debut documentary is a feast of gorgeous monochrome cinematography and a compassionate, humane, quietly spiritual work... Martin’s impressively confident debut feature is part intimate character study, part observational road movie and part free-form poetic reverie."
Flathead review
- Steven Dalton, The Film Verdict
