BRAN NUE DAY

Australia, 2009, 88 minutes, Colour
Rocky Mc Kenzie, Jessica Mauboy, Ernie Dingo, Missie Higgins, Geoffrey Rush, Deborah Mailman, Tom Budge, Magda Szubanski, Ningali Lawford, Dan Sultan.
Directed by Rachel Perkins.

Not a movie for a sobersides view of 1960s aboriginal history – it is better to check in one's serious race concerns at the door. Or, to take the concerns in but be prepared for a sunnily cheerful treatment, the kind that happens only in a musical, because this is what Bran Nue Dae is, a light look at life in Broome, in a school in Perth and on the road from Perth to Broome, with song and dance.

It is also a very broad comedy with some eccentric performances.

Bran Nue Dae began life in the 1990s as a theatrical performances, written by Jimmy Chi. The stage version was filmed and seen on screens and on television at the time. Now it has the cinema treatment, directed by Rachel Perkins (Radiance and the series, The First Australians).

It's a boy meets girl story. Boy goes to boarding school (his mother wanting him to be a priest, with a deeper reason that is revealed at the end) but owns up to a misdemeanour that he was not responsible for. Boy wants to go home and encounters a lovable rogue vagrant, some parody whites, a vampish Kimberly woman and sundry other adventures before getting home and finding true love and some surprising home truths.

When one remembers (if one was around at the time) aboriginal-white relationships in those days, just after the referendum for aboriginal rights to vote, it was not all sweetness and light. Actually, the screenplay does include a lot of the down side of prejudice, drink and hardships but they are incorporated into a treatment that is cheerful and forgiving and culminates in a rollicking song, sung by all, asking what could be better than being an aborigine.

However, there are some powerfully sombre moments in a dream sequence, Willie encountering phantoms and imagining himself strung up and hanging.

There are original songs as well as some borrowed ones (like Stand By Your Man). There are some dance routines, even a high school musical moment with a song and dance in the school chapel. Jessica Mauboy as Rose is able to belt out the songs with exuberant confidence and is a promising screen presence while Rocky Mc Kenzie is sometimes shy and reticent as the hero, Willie, a genial lad for whom priesthood is not a realistic goal.

But the star of the show is Ernie Dingo as Uncle Tadpole a well rounded performance of comedy, song and dance and an embodiment of many of the serious issues of the day.

What to say about Geoffrey Rush as Fr Benedictus, the German priest who runs the school, pursues Willie up the Western Australian coast and who gets some unexpected comeuppance in Broome? The thing to say is that he is sometimes over the top, way over, a Captain Barbarossa in clerical soutane, with a 'vot is wrong vis you' accent. Magda Szubanski, as the gun-toting Roadside Betty is over the top as well but that is what Magda Szubanski does so well and what we expect from her. Singer Missy Pilgrim is OK as a would-be hippy but xx is way under the top as Slippery, a German tourist.

At a time when Samson & Delilah has made a strong impact on Australian audiences and around the world with awards, showing a much more serious side to life in the centre of Australia, Bran Nue Dae takes an opposite and optimistic view, that, despite the past and some of its disastrous consequences, we can enjoy a send-up of some of the bad old days, whites can take a parody of themselves and, why not, a bran nue dae.

1. An Aboriginal musical? Its appeal, the light tough, spoof? Underlying serious themes?

2. A product of the Broome community in the 1990s, their experience, memories? The authors, the play, the music, the songs? Theatrical performance? Australian tour? Building up the characters, the songs?

3. The Aborigines in features films by 2010, the history of Aboriginal presence, the exploring of Aboriginal themes? The Aboriginal dream of simplicity, the life on the coast, fishing? The experience of oppression, racism, the police? The hope for autonomy? From a 21st century viewpoint?

4. The 1960s, 1969, after the referendum? Life in Broome, the families, the religious attitudes, the church and the revivalist ceremonies, the pubs and drinking, the songs, the men away in the cities?

5. The setting for each of the songs, the title song and its exuberance, finale? I Want to be an Aborigine? At school? The final dinner? The songs sung by Lester, by Rose, by the band? The choreography and singing and dancing? The extra songs: Rose and Stand By Your Man, the Rolf Harris song to the two Boomers? The Aboriginal footballers in paint and dancing to Zorba the Greek? The serious of the prison song? Real and unreal? Audiences suspending disbelief?

6. Willie’s story, his age, devout, his love for Rose, his going to the pictures, the rain, seeing himself on the screen going to school? At the pub? His mother, her religiosity, wanting him to be a priest? At the Aboriginal school, welcomed back by Father Benedictus, being a prefect? The kids and the raiding of the fridge, the chocolates? Father Benedictus going to punish the young boy, Willie confessing? His challenging Father Benedictus? (And the context for the song?) His running away, in the city, under the bridge, encountering Tadpole and his friends? The decision to go to Broome? Tadpole spending his money on drink? The fake accident? Slippery and his girlfriend, their Aboriginal consciousness, travelling, their fear of the Aborigines? Stopping on the way, Roadhouse Betty and her food, the sexy challenge, discovering the sausages, getting the gun? Benedictus and his journey, his travelling the road? Willie trying to avoid him? Meeting the footballers, going to the pub, meeting Roxanne, the drinking, her coming on to him? Their being arrested by the police, going into cell? The importance of his dream, the prison cell, the ancestors, his being raised up – strung up? Talking to Tadpole? His return, encountering Lester, the fight, declaring his love for Rosie? The religious revival? The confessions, Willie and his mother, discovering that Tadpole was his father? The range of coincidences? All at the table celebrating?

7. Willie’s mother, her life, her husband and his leaving, her relationship with Father Benedictus, her son and his going to Germany, his coming back? Her becoming religious?

8. Ernie Dingo as Tadpole, the background of his marriage, being away from Broome for so long, in the city, homeless, drinking? Encountering Willie, talking, the fake accident, spending Willie’s money, the drive, talking the Slippery and Annie? The reactions to Aboriginal issues, politically correct comments? Buying the Rolf Harris tape, singing along? The encounter with Roadside Betty and the stealing of the food? The van breaking down, getting the snake, killing it, using the skin for the connection? In the cell, the song? Arriving in Broome, supporting Willie, reunited with his wife? The discovery that Willie was his son?

9. Father Benedictus, Geoffrey Rush’s performance, the caricature aspects? The soutane, at Clontarff and the Aboriginal school? Strict, discipline, welcoming Willie back, making him a prefect, wandering in his pyjamas and seeing the kids eating the chocolates and drinking the Coca-Cola? The chapel sequences, the other clerics behind him? Threatening the little boy, Willie’s confession, his reaction? The song and dance? Willie leaving, his decision to go, get the information under the bridge? The encounter with Betty, the breakdown, the difficulties along the road? Arrival, the confrontation, the truth? Reunited with his son? His sitting at the head of the table, the final song and dance routines?

10. The church, the background of German missionaries, the comparison with revivalist religion? The strictness at the school? Celibacy issues?

11. Rose, the town, her singing, with Willie, at the pictures, the rain? Attracted to Lester, his giving her an opportunity? Her coldness on Willie’s return? Reuniting with him?

12. Lester, his singing, the touch of vanity in the mirror, fighting Willie? The meeting with Roxanne and her coming on to him?

13. Roadside Betty, the broad comedy, her participation in the finale song?

14. Roxanne, her background, the sexy attitude, with Willie, in the town, singing and dancing at the pub?

15. The importance of music in the town, Aboriginal music, country and western style music?

16. The serious themes, relationships, family? Aboriginal drinking? The picture of the police, the arrest, putting the men in the cells? Racism?

17. The traditional life, fishing, being at home, the sea? The issue of the ancestors and their protection?