Movie: 'Toomelah' (MA)

Duration: 124 mins?
Genre: Drama ?
Director: Ivan Sen Producer: David Jowsey? Screenplay: Ivan Sen
Lead actor: Daniel Conners?
Cast: Aunt Cindy, Christopher Edwards ?
Distributor: Palace Films?
Language: English? Country: Australia

Review by Margaret Pomeranz (At the Movies):
Located close to the border between Queensland and NSW, TOOMELAH is an Aboriginal community where 10-year-old Daniel, DANIEL CONNORS, is growing up the hard way. He lives with his mother and grandmother, while his father, an ex-boxer and meth addict, seems to have no roof over his head at all. Daniel has little home life, he has to fend for himself, and he plays up at school. After a while he drops out of school and hangs with small-time drug dealer Linden, CHRISTOPHER EDWARDS, and his mob. It's a terrible life for a kid.

Ivan Sen, who made the beautiful BENEATH CLOUDS, filmed TOOMELAH on location using a cast consisting almost entirely of non-professional actors headed by young Daniel Connors whose intense, watchful, damaged face dominates the drama. Though the plotting is fairly conventional, and the film is not as sophisticated as the comparable SAMSON & DELILAH, TOOMELAH is still a powerful and disturbing view of Aboriginal outback life, a place where there seems to be no employment, no future and little in the way of love. Reasons for this are suggested - one of Daniel's aunties, who was taken away to the city many years earlier, returns to remind us of the stolen generations - and in the end Daniel makes a decision that might improve his prospects.

But Sen, whose camerawork is a bit wobbly at times, depicts a world where children have to grow up very quickly indeed, where the everyday language is foul, where there really seems little hope.

Screening at: The Magnetic Island RSL Hall, Hayles Ave, Arcadia. Refreshments are available at the bar.
Screening time: 8pm. Please be early so we may start PROMPTLY at 8.00pm
Admission: Adults $10.00 Conc. $8.00 Members Free