HERE OUT WEST

Australia, 2022, 106 minutes, Colour.

Genevieve Lemon, Gabriel Chan, Lena Cruise, Arka Das, Jing Xua Chan, Christine Milo, Christian Ravello, Jaime  Ureta, Khoi Trinh, Leah Vandenberg..

Directed by Lucy Gaffey, Ana Kokkinos, Leah Purcell, Julie CalceffL Seth, Fadia Abboud.

The west of the title is the western suburbs of Sydney. But, the stories and characters could equally appear in a film about the western suburbs of Melbourne. Or in so many of the different areas of Australia’s capital cities.

We have a mixture of characters and stories, especially from different ethnic backgrounds, from the Middle East and from Asia, the subcontinent, south-east Asia, whose stories interconnect, centred on a major hospital in the western suburbs.

Each character and story is indicated with a heading. The first is quite striking, Genevieve Lemon as a grandmother visiting her daughter who has just given birth in the hospital and, with a grandmotherly impulse, snatches the baby, accompanied by a little Lebanese girl whom she is minding, and drives away. We see them at various stages as we follow other stories.

One of the strongest stories focuses on some Bengalis and an African friend, some disputes amongst themselves, one of them injured and going to hospital, cared for by a sympathetic Filipino nurse who is also crucial to the baby kidnapping story. And clashes with a severe white nurse, sometimes intolerant and hurtful. The young man is also drawn into another story, an elderly man dying in hospital, his daughter not understanding him as he speaks in Bengali as he dies. The young man serves as a translator – and there is some pathos as the daughter, who had been a singer working overseas, is able to sing a local Indian song as her father dies.

So, already we have a feel for Sydney’s western suburbs, enhanced by all kinds of views of the suburbs, from the overlapping freeways to the ordinary streets.

Towards the end of the film, the Vietnam theme is introduced, a young man, ambitious, calling himself Tom instead of Tuan, challenged by his family and his rather rebellious younger brother to face his origins as he tries to make a success of himself in local business. And, a strong focus on the Chinese, a dominant mother, her proud running of a restaurant which is about to close, the dilemma of the daughter and her boyfriend and moving interstate or the challenge of family and cultural loyalties demanding that she should stay.

This composite film was written and directed by five directors, all of them women, the more prominent, Ana Kokkinos, successful Dir of film and television for 30 years, and Leah Purcell (actor and director of The Drover’s Wife).

At just over 100 minutes, this is an interesting and entertaining introduction to life in the western suburbs, the range of characters, the range of ethnic backgrounds and languages, and each of them finding their place in multicultural Australia.

1. The western suburbs of Sydney? Ethnic backgrounds? The same for Melbourne and other cities?
2. The collaboration of the range of writers and directors, female perspectives? Characters?
3. The visualisation of the suburbs, the busy freeways, the quiet streets, homes, industry, restaurants? And the focus on the hospital, exteriors, interiors, surgery, the floors, the various rooms? The musical score?
4. The screenplay, the introduction to Nancy and the snatching of the baby, the little girl with her, the car, seeing her throughout the film, the hit run, being helped, the dilemma about returning the baby, alienation from her daughter? Returning to the hospital at the end?
5. The Hispanic man, age, his work, love for football, pressure and his son, at home, the matches, his son not turning up, the confrontation between the two? Discovering his father’s poetry?
6. The young men, rivalries and friendship, subcontinent backgrounds, African backgrounds? The girlfriend, the breakup, the truth? The focus on Robbie, the hit run and Nancy passing in the car? Fights, Robbie injured, going to the hospital, his mother phoning, to bring home condensed milk? The nurse asking him to come to the dying Bengali man, his daughter, her character, singer, overseas travels, her father wanting to die in India, her lack of expertise in the language, Robbie doing the translation, his daughter singing in Ben Corley?
7. The Vietnam story, the two brothers, in the car, Tom, success in business, phone calls? His brother, rebel? Going home, the parents? Tom asserting himself, listening to the family – and calling himself Tuan?
8. The Chinese story, the strong-minded mother, going to the countryside, wanting to move out, her daughter, her daughter’s boyfriend, considering moving interstate? The closing night of the restaurant? The guests, the daughter out on the street, the singers in the karaoke, the singer and his bond with the mother? The daughter, discovering Nancy and the child, hospitality, her decision to stay?
9. Kurdish musician, refugee, his wife, family, settling, difficulties of language, making the instruments, his wife making the carpets? The couple arriving, language difficulties, the offer of the job, cleaning bricks, more money? Ultimately, the musician taking the job?
10. The Filipino nurse, work at the hospital, is seen Nancy with the baby, the severe nurse and her reprimands (and her bigotry towards the Bengalis)? Taking extra shifts? Life at home? Bringing her husband and child in the Philippines? The loneliness?