Dust Devil: The Director’s Cut (1993)

Dust Devil: The Director’s Cut (1993)

Dir. Richard Stanley

Dust Devil is an amazing film hampered only by acting that at times is worse than a British soap opera. But if you can overlook that aspect of it then you're in for a real treat that's equal parts artistic and engaging, beautiful and grim, resembling something birthed from the unholy union of a Clive Barker short and a Ray Bradbury nightmare.

An imaginative and expressively seductive use of filters and lighting imbue it with a reality that I imagine a drug-induced spirit journey would be like.

The dusty environment, with its orange hues like a mix of amber and blood, is the perfect setting. The entire film was shot on location in Namibia and even though it’s set in South Africa it feels like a Western put through an Australian blender. Weird, I know.

A mysterious drifter (Robert Burke), a woman (Chelsea Field) running away from her abusive husband and consequently existing in a kind of in-between place emotionally, and a determined cop (Zakes Mokae) who's spent a significant portion of his adult life hunting for what he believes to be a serial killer (the Dust Devil) are the three main players. Thankfully, neither of them are the weak actors I referred to previously. Of the trio, Mokae is by far the best.

The majority of people that live in a town or city will collect and covet so much mundane reality that they no longer recognise the role ritual magic plays in their life. Conversely, living in a remote area can facilitate an individual's becoming attuned to the whispers that emanate from the unknown, from the place where belief originates. The film has a character of that nature—think of him as a kind of Shaman if that makes it easier—who helps us understand how the Dust Devil fits into the equation, how the entity relates to what we assume is the natural order.

The Director's Commentary adds so much more to the experience, deepening the symbolism, so if you have the time and enjoy those kind of things then it's definitely worth a listen.

Beneath the mystical, esoteric nature of the story there's an underlying political commentary that doesn't get overpowering but is nevertheless easily identified if you choose to do so.

The film exists in a number of different versions of varying lengths. Mine is the R2 Optimum release (pictured above right), running 104 mins. The ending credits refer to it as The Final Cut, so unless or until I'm told otherwise I'm going to assume they're the same thing even though The Final Cut was released with different cover art (pictured left).

If you can find it (and afford it) there's also a 5-Disc R0 version available from Subversive Cinema limited to 9,999 copies that includes the following:

• Two versions of the film (Final Cut and a longer Work Print).
• Three of Richard Stanley's documentaries: Voice of the Moon (1990), The White Darkness (2002), and The Secret Glory (2001).
• Soundtrack CD (The music is by Simon Boswell - it's excellent!)
• Dust Devil comic book.

Severin Films (who released Hardware (1990) and Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) in the US) were hard at work on a full remaster for a planned Blu-ray release, something that the film would really benefit from, but it never surfaced. Reportedly, the Weinsteins, co-producers on the film, stepped in and put a stop to it. At this stage I don't know if the latter is true but it does sound like the kind of thing they'd do. Whatever the reason, or to whoever's responsible for the project being terminated, keeping such a mesmerising work of art under wraps is reprehensible. Release it and we'll buy it. It's that simple.