MISSING WATER
In his deeply personal tribute to the plight of the Vietnamese refugees who travelled to Australia in junks and trawlers in the late 70s and early 80s, Khoa Do (Footy Legends, The Finished People) fashions a boldly cinematic work that structurally and emotionally cries out the very simple question: can you imagine what it was like? The appearance of a toy monkey unexpectedly triggers the memories of a now middle-aged sweatshop worker who fled from Vietnam with her beloved sister, her uncle and a stranger hoping to find safe haven and a better life on foreign shores. Working with non-professional actors, themselves refugees or descendents, Do’s bravura move is to keep the action located in the present reality of the sweatshop (a constant reference point for the death of dreams) and to gradually transform the physical space into clapped-out boat and open seas. The horror of the journey — brutal pirate attack, aggressive border police, the onset of hunger — is rendered all the more devastating by the gap between experience, memory and aspiration. CS•
Distributor or world sales
Imaginefly Productions
All current Australian content screening in the Sydney Film Festival is eligible for the 2009 Inside Film Awards. You can register your score by completing The Showtime Audience Awards voting slips during the festival or logging on to www.ifawards.com
Session times
State Theatre - State Theatre
State Theatre - State Theatre