SILVER CITY
Australia, 1984,
Ivar Kants, Gosia Dobrowalska, Anna Jemison, Steve Bisley,
Directed by Sophia Turkewiecz.
Silver City is a handsomely made, interesting and enjoyable film. it is one of an increasing number of films which focus on Australia’s migration history.
Writer-director Sophia Turkiewiecz has made a very assured first feature film. She has drawn on her family experience and her research in Poland and given audiences a picture of Poles arriving in Sydney after World War II.
She tells the story of a few of them. she shows their life in the Nissen hut compounds, Silver City, their attempts to find jobs. Family relationships, national traditions and adapting to the established Australian lifestyle cause tensions. Much of this is serious, sometimes desperate. Much of it is funny. all of it is moving.
Polish actress Gosia Dobrawolska is completely convincing as Nina – warm, attractive, strong and vulnerable. just the performance the film needs.Ivar Kants is a tense, quietly angry Julian.
Of the excellent supporting cast, Anna Jemison must be singled out as Julian’s estranged wife, Anna. Along with Steve Bisley, they have all received AFI acting award nominations.
A value of the film is the challenge it offers to the audience to appreciate what has happened in Australia in the previous four decades. We are invited to appreciate and understand the human wear and tear of the migrant experience.
A film that can be recommended to the widest audience.
1. An Australian film of the 1980s? The claim, impact, quality?
2. The period of the 1940s, postwar Australia? Atmosphere? Costumes and decor? The migrants, the ships, the buses, the camps, the countryside, the suburbs? The romantic score, the solving the refrain? The comparison with the 1960s?
3. The director, her perspective, a Polish background, the experience, the feeling?
4. Australian attitude to migrants after World War II? Traditions of migrants, succeeding generations and xenophobia? Sense of superiority? Attitude towards the wall? Migrants from Eastern Europe and Communist criticisms? From the Baltic states? As the decadence changed? Continued bigotry, racism? “New Australians�? Arthur Calwell, the koala, the hearing, the prize-winning migrant? The treatment, good and bad, the camp, the military style, discipline? The issue of jobs, non-acceptance of qualifications? Education? Difficulties of language? Photos of dead family members? Smuggling the plates? The vodka? Gradual acclimatisation? Harsh and easy? The debate and head comments and hard comments?
5. The prologue, Silver City, the song, the site, empty? Going back, the words on the loudspeakers, the huts? The birds trapped? The woman at the door?
6. The 1962 framing: the atmosphere, the train, the passengers? Nina and her glimpse of Cans? The search, the train memories, Julian, the formality, the bond, talking, memories? Nina as a teacher? Julian and what he had achieved? The flashback, the field, intimacy and sharing, that? Lina talking, success, settling into Australia? Julian settling for less, doing of the Jan Daniel? The proposal and her refusal? Nina, the visit, family reunion? Satisfied?
7. The flashback, now a memoir, the boat, leaving, the hundred thousandth migrant, the customs, the photo and plates, the language difficulties, treatment, impact? The trucks, looking at Australia, the huts, the men and women, the camp? Emotion?
8. The loudspeakers, the jobs, lining up? Nina as a domestic? The dances, the Polish anthem, meals, not criticising, experiencing the discipline, the effect of the German language, the hard life, the separations? The Fascist touches and supervision? Easier times, the screams? The work of the grapes? The crowds, wanting to get out, two years in the camp?
9. The train, Nina and Julian, the family? The trucks, at the camp? Victor, the director, the offer of jobs for two years, the German translator and the Polish reaction?
10. Nina, wanting to be a teacher, given the domestic job, the difficult employment? Nina at Carcoar, with Helena, going to the pub, the vodka, the introduction of the shandy, Nina causing a scandal with the drinks? Her throwing the key into the river?
11. Helena, the attachment to Roy, the letters to Julian, the photo?
12. Nina being stranded in the town, going to the hospital, encountering Julian, the sexual meeting, Anna upset about an affair and telling Nina?
13. The clashes at the camp, Nina upset, Julian and his going to Arthur Caldwell, the speech about the families?
14. The religious dimension, the priest, his attitude towards Nina, the issue of sin? The mother-in-law and her condemnations? Confession?
15. Victor as a character, his home, his palace, his car, supporting Julian? The party – and the lamingtons?
16. Julian, upset, missing the exam, the bus, and Anna pregnant?
17. Into the future, Nina as a teacher Julian as a clerk, his son Daniel at the University, Victor and his trucks, Helena and Roy? The anthem at the end?
