TRAILER
SYNOPSIS
Theatrical | 2025 | 79 min
A vivid ode to Country and an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal elder’s final year as he strives to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere.
Banjima Elder, Maitland Parker, calls his Yurlu (homelands) “Poison Country” – a haunting, toxic truth etched into his body. Set against the breathtaking yet contaminated landscapes of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, YURLU | COUNTRY lays bare the devastating impact of the Wittenoom asbestos mines, where millions of tonnes of waste laced with deadly asbestos fibres have poisoned both land and people. It’s Australia’s largely unknown Chernobyl-scale disaster and it’s on Banjima lands.
AWARDS & FESTIVALS
WALKLEY AWARD 2025
Winner – Documentary Award
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2025
World Premiere – Official Selection
Finalist – Documentary Australia Award
DOC EDGE NEW ZEALAND 2025
International Premiere – Official Selection
Winner – Edge of Impact Award
BUFFALO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
US Premiere – Official Selection
Winner – Best International Documentary
FIFDH GENEVA 2026
European Premiere – Official Selection
Winner – Vision for Human Rights Award
HEBDEN BRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL 2026
UK Premiere – Official Selection
Winner – DeSimone Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
AIDC 2026
Winner – Best Feature Documentary
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Official Selection
APRA AMCOS SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS 2025
Winner – Best Music in a Documentary
ASSG AWARDS 2025
Winner – Best Sound in a Documentary
NSW ACS AWARDS 2025
Winner – Silver Award for Cinematography
CAPRICORN FILM FESTIVAL 2026
Winner – Best Feature Documentary
FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AUSTRALIA AWARDS 2026
Finalist – Best Documentary
AACTA AWARDS 2026
Winner – Best Sound in a Documentary
Finalist – Best Documentary
Finalist – Best Cinematography
Finalist – Best Original Score in a Documentary
SIMA AWARDS 2026
Special Mention – Best Documentary
XXII FESTIVAL EL OJO COJO 2026
Winner – Wink Prize Feature Documentary
FIFO TAHITI 2026
Official Selection
Finalist – Best Feature Documentary
FINCA INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026
Official Selection – Latin American Premiere
Nominee – Best Feature Documentary
DARWIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Official Selection
CINEFESTOZ 2025
Official Selection
BYRON BAY FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Official Selection
UN HUMAN RIGHTS TOUR 2025
CENTRAL COAST FILM FESTIVAL 2025
GREEN SCREEN ENVIRONMENTAL FESTIVAL 2025
CENTRE FILM FESTIVAL 2025
THE VISION SPLENDID OUTBACK FESTIVAL 2026
FIRST NATIONS FILM FESTIVAL 2026
AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM FILM FESTIVAL 2026
LONDON AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2026
GREENMOTIONS FILM FESTIVAL 2026
WATCH THE FILM
or watch with one of the following services
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Watch at an upcoming festival or screening
Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival
Sarah Riley TheatreWinton QLD, Australia
1pm, Thursday 2 July
HOST A SCREENING
Hosting a screening is a powerful way to gather your community, spark meaningful conversation and raise awareness about important issues. Hosting a screening of YURLU | COUNTRY helps to amplify Banjima people’s Clean Up Wittenoom campaign.
THE PROCESS
1. Choose a venue & date
Anywhere with a projector and speakers works, or better yet, a cinema.
Give yourself 6 weeks to plan so you have enough time to organise, promote, and test equipment.
2. Screening license
Purchase your screening license from the options below. Your license will be emailed to you upon purchase.
Ps. Don’t forget to add the ‘DCP file transfer fee’ if you are screening in a cinema.
3. Promote your event
Set up an RSVP or ticket sales page using platforms such as Humanitix or Eventbrite.
Once your screening license is purchased, you’ll gain access to our promotional suite.
PURCHASE YOUR SCREENING LICENSE
MORE INFORMATION
Running Time
The running time of YURLU | COUNTRY is 79 minutes, roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Tickets and Fundraising
Once you have secured a Screening License, you are legally able to sell tickets to your event, should you wish to recoup costs. You are also able to use your event as a fundraiser for the cause of your choice.
Support
Immediately after payment, you will receive an email containing access to materials to support making your screening a success. This includes a comprehensive Screening Guide, Promotional Materials and Assets you may need on the day.
Cinema Screenings
Contact your local cinema with the date, time and approximate capacity of the cinema you are after. The cinema will be able to provide you with a quote for your booking.
Once the cinema is booked, we will liaise with the cinema direct to send them a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) file. We require a minimum two weeks’ notice to send the DCP to a cinema.
Non-Cinema Screenings
A week before your event, you will receive an email containing a secure link to the film, along with your unique password. This will expire 24 hrs after your screening date.
Contact
We are here to help. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out: impact@illuminate-films.com.au
EDUCATION
Our YURLU | COUNTRY educational materials have been created in collaboration with Banjima Aboriginal Native Title Corporation (BNTAC). They are free for teachers to use in their classrooms. Covering topics of legacy, environmental racism, and activism, our materials mapped to the Year 7, 8, 9 and 10, Australian and Western Australian Curriculum.
To receive a link to our educational materials, please fill in the form below.
TEAM
KEY CREDITS
Writer, Director & Producer
YAARA BOU MELHEM
Co-Writer & Executive Producer
MAITLAND PARKER
Co-Producer & DOP
TOM BANNIGAN ACS
Co-Producer
JAMES SAUNDERS
Executive Producer
CHRIS KAMEN
Impact Producer
MATISSE WALKDEN-BROWN
Editor
FRANCISCO FORBES
Music/Composer
HELENA CZAJKA
SCREEN AUSTRALIA in association with MARTIDJA BANJYJIMA, SCREEN NSW and SHARK ISLAND PRODUCTIONS
an ILLUMINATE FILMS production
DISTRIBUTION
Bonsai Films
FIFDH Human Rights Vision Award Jury Statement
“Yurlu | Country wins for the quiet devastation of its gaze, and determined call to accountability. Yaara Bou Melhem’s hypnotic cinematography holds Banjima Country with tenderness and dignity, and serves as a gentle but unflinching rebuke of the impact of colonial abuse of sovereignty, land, labour, and heritage, whose long tail is experienced in asbestos toxicity still killing today. Yurlu | Country shows clearly how human and environmental rights violations compound and intersect through corporate impunity and government complicity in abnegation of human rights obligations. In the face of a new rush to exploitation, extraction and encroachment everywhere, its urgency is undeniable”
AIDC Best Documentary Feature Jury Statement
“We are thrilled to award Best Feature Documentary to Yaara Bou Melhem’s Yurlu | Country. The Jury would like to honour and acknowledge the significant collaboration by Banjima Elder and advocate Maitland, and the ongoing involvement and connection by the community. Yurlu | Country is a crucial exposé on the environmental and cultural devastation in Western Australia delivered at the hands of corporate entities and the state government, which has severely impacted Aboriginal lives and livelihoods for generations. This is a profoundly moving and visually stunning documentary that interweaves the personal, cultural, and environmental into a story of urgent resonance.”
Walkley Documentary Award Judges Comments
“Yurlu | Country is a powerful, deeply personal meditation on the litany of violence that has been inflicted on the Banjima people and their land in the Pilbara, now contaminated by blue asbestos. Banjima Elder and co-writer Maitland Parker, with filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem, take us on a haunting journey, as Parker fights not only for his own health but also for his homeland, which is accessible only in hazmat suits and masks.
The film is an urgent call to action for justice for both the land and its people. It’s a profoundly political and deeply poetic film.”