THE GREENHOUSE

Australia, 2021, 97 minutes, Colour.

Jane Watt, Joel Horwood, Kirsty Marillier, Shiv Palekar, Rhondda Findleton, Camilla Ah Kim, Harriet Gordon-Anderson.

Directed by Thomas Wilson-White.

This is a small budget film, written and directed by Thomas Wilson White who had made short films. He draws on his own life experience for the story, especially his growing up with two mothers.

However, the central character of this film is one of the daughters, one of three adopted children. While the film is set in the present, there are various flashbacks. However, the film also moves into some magical realism, time travel into the past, Beth discovering a greenhouse and this being the portal to her going back, later the search for one of the mothers and her siblings joining her in the greenhouse and venturing back into the past, surfacing difficulties, possibilities for reconciliation.

Jane Watt portrays Beth, the central character, sad at the death of one of the mothers, Rhondda Findlayson, and staying in the family home, bereavement, longtime grieving, eventually antagonism with her siblings. However, they are assembled for the other mother’s 60^th birthday, the celebration, yet more antagonism and the others leaving, only for Beth to find that their mother has disappeared and she phones them to bring them back.

The culmination of the film is going into the greenhouse, going into the past, reliving as they observe episodes from the past, the dead mother not recognising them, the other mother making an option to stay with her partner – and the others having to make the effort to come back to reality, to the present, some kind of reconciliation including Beth bonding again with a love from the past.

The film was screened at many Queer Film Festivals and won a number of awards.

1. The title, realism, magical realism, fantasy, time travel?
2. The Australian setting, New South Wales South Coast, the home, the grounds, the atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The structure of the film, the present, the flashbacks, journey to the past, observing the past, intervening?
4. The focus on the family, the two mums, happiness in the household, the adoption of the children, their growing up, bonds with the mothers, bonds with each other? Scenes of happy meals?
5. The focus on Beth, her place amongst the three, relationship with the mothers, the death, her grief, the long time of grief and its effect on her, staying with the other mother? Alienation from the siblings? The portrait of Beth, grief, in the present, Lauren visiting the town, Beth hiding, fear, their meeting and embrace? The revelation of the past experience, family reactions? Beth and her separation?
6. Beth, the greenhouse, its interiors, atmosphere, moving out of the greenhouse, the venturing into the past? Her experiences, her dead mother?
7. The 60^th birthday, the party, everyone assembling, the speech and the toast, the three amongst themselves, their characters, subsequent careers and leaving home, doctor, actor, antagonisms? Especially towards Beth?
8. The day after, Beth discovering the note, the disappearance of the mother, the conflict with the siblings, the fights, especially Drew? Yet memories of their being friends in their childhood? Their leaving, Beth and the phone call, the return?
9. Venturing out, the greenhouse, the fog, the car and the space in the boot, emerging in the alternate world, the encounter with their dead mother, her not recognising them? The search, in the water, finding their mother in the greenhouse?
10. The siblings, seeing the past, the ghostly figures, the hostile ghostly figures? Lauren appearing? The mother deciding to stay with her partner, the farewell?
11. The experience is a kind of exorcism of the past, the bonding between the siblings, Lauren and her bonding with Beth? Beth being able to move away?