“It’s real, and it’s honest. It’s full of excellent ethnic actors, writers and directors oozing talent, telling their stories.”
“I can only stand and applaud Screen Australia and the ABC for funding this excellent work. It’s what great writing, acting and directing should be. It’s time we matured beyond simple twisting tales with pat endings..“
Con Nats
4 /5 Spiders
Many years ago, a bunch of Australian writers got together and wrote a batch of intersecting short stories called: Whatever happened to The Working Class for the stage and eventually a film called Blessed. This time a group of multi-cultural and indigenous writers have told their stories and put them in the hands of some excellent directors (Anna Kokkinos, Leah Purcell and Fadia Aboud, Lucy gaffe and Julie Kalceff) to show us what’s happened to the working class: They’re now all ethnic.
The stories are linked by an alcoholic Aussie mother, Nancy (Genevieve Lemon), who is babysitting a neighbour’s Arabian girl and her spider. Nancy kidnaps her granddaughter from a West Sydney hospital before she’s taken by DOCs. She evades Jorge (Christian Ravello) who looks after the hospital car park, writes poetry and mourns the loss of his dreams. Comedy is provided by an African, an Iraqi and an Indian who fight for the honour of a cousin and end up in hospital. They end up rescuing a labourer, Keko (De Lovan Zandy)who is hit by a car driven by Nancy. He’s a Kurdish musician and wants to teach the Mangale, but is labouring instead. Robi, the Indian (Arka Das – who also wrote his story) helps Ashmita (Leah Vandenburg), a feisty Australian-Bengalese woman, understand and talk to her dying father in his native tongue.
We also peer into the life of Roxanne (Christine Milo), a Philippine nurse who has left her husband and son behind to work in Australia. (This is set pre-Covid when hospitals were already struggling with their normal unrealistic workloads.) Then there’s Tom/Tuan (Khoi Trinh), the Vietnamese sales guy, and Angel (Jing Xuan Chan) who struggles with choosing between moving to Melbourne with her boyfriend and helping her stubborn mother (Gabrielle Chan) run her fading Chinese restaurant. While hawking for customers, she notices a car with a young girl and baby.
It might sound like a melodramatic mishmash, but this is actually beautifully written. Whereas Australian short film making – ala Tripefest (sic) – is usually about a comic twist and a ‘whoopsie’ hilarious ending, these short stories focus on the humans involved. They give us moving insights instead of ‘gotcha’ twists. They tell us the struggles migrants in Sydney’s west face without telling us in overwritten and overwrought language. No neatly wrapped up storylines here, just real human stories. It seems to be frustrating many viewers
I was once asked if I had ever experienced racism. Of course I have; this is Australia. You’re better off asking the most recent date. For an ethnic Australian, it’s all there. I’ve worked for the ‘white witch’, the boofy office blokes who treat ethnicity as comedy, the Anglicization of name and been told to only speak English in the workplace. I’ve seen the burying of dreams, migrants smiling while being patronised and their unbridled generosity despite it.
It probably explains why I was so moved by this film. It’s real, and it’s honest. It’s full of excellent ethnic actors, writers and directors oozing talent, telling their stories. (Kokkinos also worked on Blessed). It makes its points without yelling and screaming or pointing fingers of guilt. It prefers subtlety and tenderness.
The cinematography is excellent and every actor delivers. You can tell they’ve lived these scenes. I can only stand and applaud Screen Australia and the ABC for funding this excellent work. It’s what great writing, acting and directing should be. It’s time we matured beyond simple twisting tales with pat endings.
Con Nats, On The Screen
