14 ★ FT Weekend 22 February/23 February 2020
Last week’s $180,000 Cairns
Cup at St Louis became a
landmark for American
chess when Carissa Yip, at
16 the youngest and lowest-
ranked of the 10 players,
outplayed China’s reigning
world women’s champion
and No 1 seed Ju Wenjun in
impressive style.
Aged just 10, Yip became
the youngest female to
defeat a male grandmaster,
but she had lost her first
four games at St Louis and
admitted to feeling
“intimidated”. Then her play
suddenly clicked and she
finished strongly with 4/5.
Ju Wenjun, who had fallen
for the trap in this week’s
puzzle the previous round,
was caught at the start with a
prepared line against her
Ruy Lopez. Later, at move 39,
Yip found a winning bishop
sacrifice.
China, Russia, the former
Soviet nations and India,
whose Humpy Koneru won
the 2020 Cairns Cup half a
point ahead of Ju, currentlydominate women’s events,
The US, with financial
backing from its Maecenas
Rex Sinquefield, aims to
match them.2355
Nana Dzagnidze v Ju
Wenjun, Cairns Cup 2020.
China’s world women’s
champion was two pawns up
and set for victory until
Black’s last move h4-h3?
It’s a three-part puzzle:
(a) What was Dzagnidze’s
next white move (easy)? (b)
Why was it strong (not
difficult)? (c) What did the
disbelieving grandmaster
commentator ask his
colleague (a little harder)?
Solution, page 1712345678A B C D E F G HDiversions
POLYMATH1,062 SET BY AARDVARK
CHESSLEONARD BARDEN
CROSSWORD16,407 SET BY MUDD
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1 Especially in Brazil, a large
estate, plantation or cattle
ranch (7)
5 Home venue of Blackburn
Rovers FC (5,4)
10 Large, short-winged, forest-
dwelling bird of prey used in
falconry (7)
11 Purplish-red, edible seaweed
of North Atlantic coasts (5,4)
13 Scottish balladeer and
music hall comedian, 1870-
1950 (5,6)
14 Peter, Olympic middle-
distance runner, born in New
Zealand in 1938 (5)
16 Apostle of Jesus known as
the Canaanite (5)
17 Director of the 1968 film
Once Upon a Time in the
West (6,5)
19 Ancient ornamental design,
especially of palmette leaf
motifs (9)
24 US city, birthplace of the
musician Prince (11)
25 Fashion magazine founded
by Arthur Turnure in the US
in 1892 (5)
27 Slang term for an unskilled
low-paid occupation (5)
28 Subterranean contour of
equal temperature (11)
30 Belonging to or relating to
the skin (9)
31 Traditional period when
British university students
hold events for charity (3,4)
32 English racecourse which
hosts the annual Midlands
Grand National (9)
33 African country whose
capital city is Dakar (7)DOWN
2 French term meaning “in my
opinion” (1,3,4)
3 Very light gas once
supposed to exist in air (8)
4 Hindu or Sikh festival of
light celebrating the end of
the monsoon (6)
6 Children’s TV sitcom
starring Jon Pertwee as the
eponymous scarecrow (6,8)
7 Informal name for a citizen
of the former East Germany
(4)
8 Fruit studded with cloves to
scent the air (8)
9 Peninsula separated from
the rest of Cornwall by the
river Fal (8)
12 Thomas Hardy’s last
completed novel (4,3,7)
15 Trivalent, non-metallic
element, atomic number 5 (5)
18 Sam, US golfer who won the
1946 Open Championship (5)
20 British title of nobility
between a baron and an earl
(8)
21 Final, very thin coat of lime
plaster on which a fresco is
painted (8)
22 Prime minister of Australia
from 1983 to 1991 (3,5)
23 Mediterranean cruciferous
trailing plant, often grown in
rock-gardens (8)
26 Familiar name of the Roman
poet Quintus Horatius
Flaccus (6)
29 Main river of Ludlow,
Shropshire (4)The first correct entry drawn
on Wednesday March 4 wins a
copy of The Chambers Diction-
ary. Entries should be ad-
dressed to Polymath No 1,062,
Weekend FT, 1 Friday Street
London EC4M 9BT. Solution
and winner’s name on March 7.The 13th edition (2014) retains the much-loved features of The Cham-
bers Dictionary, including the unique quirky definitions for certain words.
There are more than 1,000 new words and meanings, and there is also a
new Word Lover’s Ramble, showing how English words and definitions
have changed over the history of the dictionary.Crossword 16,407 Set by Mudd
Solution 16,406 Solution 16,395
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1 Travelling west, I left, with the
assistance of an African (6)
4 Dodgy inspection of
unmentionables starts in one
side of London (8)
10 Damage also inside case (9)
11 Vegetable ending in salad
behind fish (5)
12 Pin down boat’s course (4)
13 This travels on water: for the
car, very different (10)
15 Plan to cut payment for
clothing (7)
16 Top suit belonging to
president? (6)
19 Label on vessel for Cambridge
(6)
21 Town upset by gravy a few
moments ago (4,3)
23 A darter, dig out tiny creature
(10)
25 Be sinful in retirement (4)
27 Band needing thumbthing
thung? (5)
28 Number was taken away: that
goes into ten, almost (6-3)
29 Most of tongue covered in
Malaysian food for twenty-four
hours (8)
30 Aim to complain (6)DOWN
1 Burning issue with politician in
privy chamber (8)
2 Fragile stuff on beach in
fragments (4,5)
3 Open a pot (4)
5 What’s given here (7)
6 Track – a resource that’s built
around circuit, primarily (10)
7 Found up in Utah, a Mormon
US city (5)
8 Somewhat composed, at ease?
(6)
9 Gorge: place in which I travel
(3,3)
14 Player in red? (4-6)
17 Hope stain comes out in
underwear (9)
18 Most delightful little river on
which swan initially sits (8)
20 Bishop has one on extremely
tight, a square cap (7)
21 Rules on book (6)
22 Information about university
rank (6)
24 Part of tree including second
branch, perhaps? (5)
26 Shot wound (4)Copies of The Meaning of Everything: The
Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester, published by Oxford University Press,
will be awarded to the senders of the first three
correct entries opened on Wednesday March 4.
Entries marked Crossword 16,407 on the envelope,
should be sent to Weekend FT, 1 Friday Street,
London EC4M 9BT. Solution on March 7.WJotter padINNERS
Crossword 16,395:David Micklethwait, London;
Peter Tilford, Florida; David Westacott, ViennaPolymath 1,060:Liz Wicken, Cambridge, EnglandArts
Clockwise from
main: a scene
from ‘True
History of the
Kelly Gang’;
Orlando
Schwerdt as the
teenage Ned
Kelly; director
Justin Kurzel
Getty ImagesI
n 2017 Justin Kurzel was lost. Both
culturally, as a homesick Austral-
ian living in London, and creatively,
as a director whose 2016 foray into
blockbuster filmmaking with
Assassin’s Creedwas met with tepid
enthusiasm at best. Until that setback,
his career had been near-universally
feted. His debut feature, the brutal true
crime drama,Snowtown, won the adula-
tion of critics at Cannes in 2011, while
his broodingMacbethfrom 2015 may be
called one of the great Shakespeare-on-
screen productions. Two years later, he
says over coffee in a central London
hotel, he was already “desperately try-
ing to find my voice again”.
What he found wasn’t just his voice,
but “a scream”. One that eventually took
shape as his fourth film,True History of
the Kelly Gang, a loud, pugnacious and
provocative adaptation of Peter Carey’s
Booker Prize-winning novel from 2000
about the infamous 19th-century bush-
ranger, Ned Kelly. Although thoroughly
contemporary, it marks a series of
returns for Kurzel. Not just a return to
form (which it undoubtedly is) or to the
unsparing, emotionally fraught tone
that defined his first two films, but also
to Australia, and his own place in, and
understanding of, his nation’s history.
“There’s something about that period
and the Kelly legend that feeds into a lot
of Australian film and literature, so this
was like going back to the source to
investigate it,” the 45-year-old explains.
A national martyr who courageously
defied British rule to some, a callous and
self-interested domestic terrorist to oth-
ers, the young outlaw looms large over
Antipodean iconography and modern
mythology. Indeed, Kurzel’s film is
already the 10th biopic — with notable
previous attempts including a bewilder-
ing, semi-musical, Mick Jagger-fronted
feature from 1970, and a more hagio-
graphic version starring Heath Ledger
from 2003. Could he not have been
accused, I ask, of serving up a kind of
filmic palimpsest here?
“It felt like a real calling. In the past
Kelly has been heroicised; in school
you’d never be taught about indigenoushistory, but always about Ned Kelly.
What was really interesting about
[Carey’s] book is that it questions why
we need to identify with, and to be
anchored to, this particular man,” he
says. “I’ve always seen this film as a bit
of a protest against that.”
Kelly is played by rising star George
MacKay, and his adolescent self by new-
comer Orlando Schwerdt, branded a
“freak” by his director for his pre-
cocious maturity. AlthoughTrue Historyarguably indulges Kelly’s gunslinging
rebellion through Kurzel’s ultra-stylised
approach — a heady mixture here of
strobe lighting, POV battle sequences,
creeping slow zoom and a punk rock
soundtrack — it resists glorifying what
Ned Kelly ultimately became or what
his legacy amounted to in death.
Rather, it laments the fate of a “smart,
sensitive and sophisticated” young man
who, according to Kurzel, “could’ve
been prime minister”. In the superlative
first act, which explores the troubled
formative years of the adolescent Kelly,
Kurzel stresses the pressure on the boy
from his Lady Macbeth-like mother (an
excellent Essie Davis) to “become a
man” in lieu of his deceased father.
Codified notions of what it means to
be a man seem to dictate every step of
Kelly’s incendiary and violent life. I ask
whether Kurzel actively thought about
tapping into timely conversations about
so-called toxic masculinity withTrue
History. “We were never consciously sit-
ting there thinking ‘this is how it’ll be
read now’, but we wanted to have a dis-
cussion about Australian masculinity,”
he says. “There’s a very particular alpha
DNA in Australian men, heightenedbecause of our landscape, our isolation
and history, and if you’re not that, then
the fallout is much greater than any-
where else.
“When I was growing up you’d never
dream of mentioning your weaknesses
or your insecurities. There was always a
lot of pressure and intimidation, but I
started to have mentors, really strong
male figures who shaped me.” These
tutelary figures, Kurzel notes, do crop
up in his films, from Russell Crowe’s
jovial, ursine but deadly Harry Powerwho guides (and corrupts) the young
Kelly, toSnowtown’s murderous but
“genuine” John. “I’ve always been sur-
rounded by people like that, I was just
really lucky my mentor wasn’t a serial
killer!” he laughs.
Kurzel is a warm and lively speaker,
occasionally punctuating his more
sobering comments with such little
jokey interjections. Yet a bleak vision of
a destructive and benighted humanity is
proffered by his films. “A lot of that
came out of makingSnowtown, and I
lived in that area [where the killings
around which the film revolves took
place] too; I could see in that commu-
nity how evil could breathe and exist. I
don’t believe violence just happens,” he
adds, “I believe it’s embedded in some
way that goes beyond just a mad indi-
vidual — we are all complicit in it.”
This notion of collective culpability
for the heinous actions of an individual
informs much of Kurzel’s work. His
films contain some unflinchingly grisly
set pieces, and masterfully ramp up a
queasy sense of tension and immersion
— not least inTrue History. But in a time
of trigger-warnings, does Kurzel fear a
backlash against his style of filmmak-
ing? “I haven’t consciously sought to
make violent films, but I can’t be naive
and say there’s not something there that
I’m deeply interested in. I always try to
take the audience to a place where the
violence is accessible,” he concedes,
“but I can already feel things changing.People want to be more challenged.
They’ll get bored after a while of feeling
protected and outraged.”
That said, Kurzel is questioning what
his signature style should look like. Tak-
ing rather unlikely inspiration from the
Belgian filmmakers, the Dardenne
brothers, his next film is “the antithesis
to anything I’ve done before”. And in
another upcoming departure from prec-
edent, he’s also working with his brother
Jed (who composed the soundtracks for
all four of his films) on a semi-
autobiographical comedy about their
early lives as tennis prodigies.
“It’s a dark comedy,” he clarifies, per-
haps without needing to. In the hands of
this world-weary, often fatalistic auteur,
it could hardly be anything else.‘TrueHistoryoftheKellyGang’is
releasedintheUKonFebruary28What it is to be a man
Film| Justin Kurzel, director
of ‘True History of the Kelly
Gang’ talks toDan Einav
about history and violence
‘People want to be
challenged. They’ll get
bored after a while offeeling protected’
The better you become at
bridge, the smaller the cards
that interest you. Here is a
hand where the nine is of
utmost importance.
Since South’s opening
promised a five-card suit,
North raised her partner
rather than bidding 1NT.
This avoided the very poor
contract of 3NT, but it made
South the declarer — and
that led to trouble.
West led♥AK and then
2 ♥, which South ruffed. He
laid down♠AK and, whentable. If East rises with a
high spade, South wins, sees
West show out, and returns
to dummy with Q♦to lead
his last spade towards his
♠932. Alternatively — and,
here, correctly — if East
plays low on the second
round of spades, South
covers with 9♠. If West can
win, the suit must be
breaking 3-2, and South’s
K♠will draw the last trump;
if West shows out, declarer
can now only lose one
trick to East.BRIDGEPAUL MENDELSON
East turned up with four
trumps, South admitted
defeat. There are two
chances to succeed: one is if
the trumps divide 3-2; theother is if East holds four
trumps but West’s singleton
is, as here, queen, jack or 10.
Declarer was correct to
cash a top honour first,
providing that it leaves 9♠
accompanied by the other
top honour. When West
drops 10♠, declarer must
cross to dummy with K♦
and lead a trump from theDealer: North Love All
North East South West
NB NB 1S NB
2S NB 4SJ 8 6
K Q 7
9 5 4 26 5 4ESNWA K 9Q9 3
A 5 23 2A KJ 8
10 4
10 8
7Q
Q
J
10310 7
A K 7
4
65
32
9 6
J 8FEBRUARY 22 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 20/2/2020 - 17: 19 User: adrian.justins Page Name: WKD14, Part,Page,Edition: WKD, 14, 1