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Clip description
Dr Plonk (Nigel Lunghi) is accidentally transported 10,000 years into the past and captured by spear-wielding natives. Plonk pulls the alarm bell, but his mute assistant Paulus (Paul Brickwell) cannot hear it. Plonk narrowly escapes being burnt alive in his time machine.
Curator’s notes
Naturally, Dr Plonk’s time travelling contraption goes haywire at first. This scene pokes fun at the way ‘natives’ were usually portrayed in silent and early sound-era movies. Overacting wildly while dressed in silly grass skirts and wearing huge ‘fuzzy-wuzzy’ wigs, Dr Plonk’s captors include Aboriginal actors Richard Birrinbirrin and Jamie Gulpilil, who appeared in de Heer’s previous film Ten Canoes (2006).
