The Australian director and writer, Bill Bennett, has released the first trailer of his new film: The Way, My Way. The movie is based on the bestselling book of the same name, which is about Bill's personal experiences from walking the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain.

 

Continue to watch the trailer, read a synopsis and director's statement; plus discover how you can experience the iconic Camino yourself.

 

Come along to our exclusive private screening of the wonderful new Camino film: 'The Way, My Way', and join other Camino enthusiasts and active travellers. Available in select Australian cities only (sorry to those who miss out!). Special price for UTracks Active Travel Community members of just $12! 

 

> Brisbane - Buy tickets - Tuesday, 21 May

> Canberra - Buy tickets - Tuesday, 21 May

> Melbourne - Buy tickets - Wednesday, 22 May

> Perth - Buy tickets - Tuesday, 21 May

> Sydney - Buy tickets - Wednesday, 21 May

 

 

 

 

The Way, My Way is the charming and captivating true story of a stubborn and amusingly self-centred Australian man who decides to walk the 800 kilometre-long Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain. He doesn’t know why he’s doing it, but one step at a time it will change him and his outlook on life forever. 

 

Based on Bill Bennett’s best selling memoir of the same name, The Way, My Way has been described by Camino elder statesman Johnnie Walker as the most authentic film ever made about the Camino.

 

 

I really didn’t want to make this film. I didn´t want to make a film about myself; about my failings, about my suffering, about my stubbornness and fixed myopic opinions. But there were some around me who’d read my book, The Way, My Way, and it had impacted deeply on their lives.  They’d laughed and cried through the reading of the book, and they were certain it would make a terrific film.

I didn´t agree.
I couldn´t see it. 

But finally they convinced me to take a swing at writing the screenplay. 

Some seven years later, and after more than forty drafts of the script, I finally found a way to tell my story. I detached myself from myself and wrote the script about that man over there – not me – that stupid horrible man over there who, under certain lighting conditions and with the right wardrobe, might look a bit like me. 

I’d found a way in to telling my story,  
It wasn’t really about me.
Ha! 

Once I had a screenplay I was happy with, I then turned my mind as to how best to make this damn film. How do you make a movie on the Camino and make it real? Make it authentic? Not make it some Hollywood star-driven artificial confection. 

I decided the only way to tell my story truthfully was to shoot with a very small crew and use the real pilgrims I’d walked with ten years earlier. I’d stayed in touch with them – we’d become lifelong friends – and so they agreed to come on board this crazy adventure! 

I wanted to be small enough and nimble enough to work within the ebb and flow of the Camino. To become invisible. Only by doing that could I, as a filmmaker, respond to light, to shifts in weather, to the pulsating electric current that is the Camino. 

My carefully crafted screenplay had to become malleable in my pursuit of authenticity. I wanted to capture the real Camino. I wanted an audience of pilgrims watching this film to say at the end: Yes, finally, a true depiction of what it´s like to walk the Camino. If the film elicited that kind of reaction from a Camino audience, then I would regard the film a success.

With the pilgrims, they never saw the script. I kept it from them. I wanted their responses to be true to what was happening in any given scene. I didn´t want them feeling obliged to give me a performance. In fact, I didn´t want a performance at all. I wanted the truth of the situation, whatever that might be, moment to moment.  

The pilgrims proved to be stellar. If they´d been highly trained professional actors I couldn´t have asked for more from them. But – with the decision to cast the real pilgrims, that one decision then dictated so many other major creative decisions for me as a director. The shooting style, the editing style, the tone of the movie, the staging and blocking of scenes – even what gear we should use – cameras and lenses and how best to record location sound, all these creative decisions were made on the basis that we were using the real pilgrims. I called them “the actuals,” as against “the actors.” 

The “actuals” set the benchmark. They held the truth. They held the authenticity. The professional actors had to step up to the pilgrim´s benchmark. They had to find their own truth – just as we all had to, all of us standing behind the cameras as well. 

Now having almost completed post production, I feel I’ve achieved what I set out to do – to make a truly authentic film about a man, dogged in his views and amusingly self-centered, who ultimately undergoes a fundamental shift in character and outlook, just through walking the Camino.

Bill Bennett,
Writer/Director/Producer

 

 

 

“I’d never done anything crazy like this before – a pilgrimage walk. I was not a hiker, and I wasn’t a Catholic. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I was a Christian. On the last government census when I had to state my religion, I'd said I was a Buddhist, mainly because they’ve had such a hard time in Tibet I felt they needed my statistical support.

I was also not an adventure traveller. For me, adventure travel was flying coach. All this backpacking and wearing of heavy boots and flying off to France to walk ancient pilgrimage routes was a new experience, and not one that made me feel entirely comfortable.”

And so Bill Bennett, an Australian based film director, set off on an 800 kilometre walk across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, not sure why he was doing it, and not feeling entirely comfortable. His discomfort increased markedly a few days later when his knee gave out – so the rest of the walk was a “pain management pilgrimage.”

But he kept his sense of humour, and his memoir is at times hilarious but also deeply moving, and insightful. In the vein of Bill Bryson and Eric Newby, The Way, My Way takes you on a unique spiritual journey, and gives you a hearty laugh along the way.

 

>> View the book on Amazon

 

 

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>> The Way, My Way is screening in Australian cinemas from May 16. 

 

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Keen to experience the Camino de Santiago yourself? Browse our top-rated self-guided small group tours or get in touch with one of our expert team members.

 

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