Strong coarse language and violence/drug use
Australia 2009
Director: David Field
Featuring: George Basha, Firass Dirani & Doris Younane
Language: English
Running Time: 96 minutes
The film is set in Sydney’s west among the Lebanese-Australian communities where Basha grew up. His friend, the actor David Field, directed and the result is a toughtalking film about the neighbourhood’s teenage gangs.
Played by Basha, John is just out of prison and the wisdom he has acquired behind bars has strengthened his resolve not to let his young brother, Charlie (Firass Dirani), go the same way. But Charlie, who is still at school, has already started a war of his own skirmishing with a gang of Anglo bigots led by Scott (Vaughn White). Charlie fancies Scott’s girl, Anna (Katrina Risteska), and delights in baiting her boyfriend. John still harbours his own grudges but he has learnt what to do with them. He has taken a job as a cleaner at the local boxing gym, where he beats out his frustrations on a punching bag at the end of the day. He is a talented boxer but as soon as he steps into the ring, we learn why he doesn’t do it more often. He has also started taking out blonde and beautiful Sydney Roberts (Clare Bowen), who eagerly steps out of her own Anglo social circles to be introduced to Lebanese food, music, cafes and clubs. It has to be said that the Lebanese have all the fun here while Clare’s xenophobic parents (John Brumpton and Ruth McGowan) get by on the sedative effects of booze and television. The couple are sleepwalkers when compared with Doris Younane, who brings a lot of heart and intelligence to the role of Mary, John and Charlie’s widowed mother.
Shot with a digital camera, the film has a lot of hand-held work. Field, who likes closeups and exaggerated angles, is calling it a Middle Eastern Western, which is fair enough although there’s a strong whiff of spaghetti about the lurid climax.
Source: www.smh.com.au
Compiled by Jack Morton