There are around 25 million kangaroos in Australia today. Tourists love them. Scientists are intrigued* by them. Conservationists* mostly want to protect them. The food industry sees them as a resource. Many farmers see them as vermin*. Some aboriginal* people consider them sacred*.

Of all these groups, the aboriginees* are the only ones whose voices are missing in this film, but in a way it seems to be all about their story. Underlying these competing perspectives is the question of who Australia really belongs to. Is 25 million kangaroos too many, or is the problem that humans have taken, and tried to fence off, all the good land? Why is a state of affairs that existed for thousands of years before European settlers arrived suddenly a problem?

It isn’t difficult to explain the attraction of kangaroos. Footage of them hopping in groups across broad desert landscapes speaks to the sense of romance still attached to the continent. The fact that they’re bipeds* who care for their children and live in mutually* supportive groups makes it easy to identify with them. Yet the film takes its time to explain the reasons why they’re unpopular. We see them carelessly crossing roads (they cause around 17,500 car accidents a year), trampling* crops and helping themselves to food owned by humans. We get a sense of how easily they can seem to overwhelm an area and how frustrating* that must be for those struggling to make a living from the land.

This balance, as well as the details surrounding it, makes the film easily accessible to people new to the subject and gives it a natural sense of authority.

Some people try to create nature reserves and protect the kangaroos. But in the latter third of the film, we see the horrors of the hunt — animals shot at randomly against regulations, joeys* ripped from their mothers’ pouches and having their brains bashed out or simply being left to die.

Trucks then come collecting them for the marketplace. Most kangaroo meat goes to the pet industry, while the better parts are sold to supermarkets in places like Russia, China and the U.K.

There’s a lot of interesting material here, and directors Kate McIntyre Clere and Michael McIntyre keep the film visually interesting.

(SD-Agencies)