Marungka tjalatjunu (Dipped In black)

Marungka tjalatjunu (Dipped in black) follows Yankunytjatjara man Derik Lynch's road trip back to Country for spiritual healing, as memories from his childhood return. A journey from the oppression of white city life in Adelaide, back home to his remote Anangu Community (Aputula) to perform on sacred Inma ground.

Inma is a traditional form of storytelling using the visual, verbal, and physical. It is how Anangu Tjukurpa (story connected to country / dreaming / myth / lore) have been passed down for over 60,000+ years from generation to generation.

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“The film exposes and weaves together those tender and difficult threads of living in multiple worlds–worlds which are your own, full of loss and love, of trauma and survival–and worlds which are thrust upon you, often violent, often unrelenting, and often unforgiving. This is a film of healing and of elegance, and the places that exist between sunrise and sunset, and dusk and dawn.”
- Jury Statement, Berlinale 2023
(Sky Hopinka, Cătălin Cristuțiu, Isabelle Stever)

“Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) is an incredibly evocative, precise, and raw film. Exploratory and playful in its form, the film tests the line of fact and fiction, and in turn unearths something that sits at the root of the human experience. The film has a highly accomplished and distinct aesthetic that allows for a powerful contemplation of culture, Country, identity and belonging. Derik Lynch is utterly mesmerising in the way he shares his life experiences, on his country, and in his Yankunytjara language. This is a film that is both deeply affecting and matter of fact in its approach, and although it is short in its duration, the film is so concisely exacted, it only leaves you wanting more."
- Jury Statement, Sydney Film Festival 2023
(Christoffer Guldbrandsen, Sascha Ettinger Epstein, Laurrie Brannigan-Onato)

"In Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), filmmakers Matthew Thorne and Derik Lynch discovered an approach to biography wholly their own. Sensitive to the exciting and at times excitingly treacherous territory between fact, memory and story, they have created a deeply moving cinematic portrait. It was a privilege to follow Lynch’s journey to Aputula, and to glimpse his past along the way, the generosity, courage and imagination with which he navigates tradition, belonging and individuality. Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) impressed us with the focus and frankness with which the filmmakers grapple with Australia’s colonial and political landscape, in which a bold and brave individual creates self."
- Jury Statement, Melbourne International Film Festival 2023
(Alena Lodkina, Kate ten Burren, Virginia Whitwell)