Fringe Dwellers (1986)
| Director: | Bruce Beresford |
| Actors: | Ernie Dingo, Kristina Nehm, Bob Maza, Bruce Beresford, Justine Saunders, Don Mcalpine, Kylie Belling, Denis Walker |
Trilby Comeaway (Kristina Nehm) is an Aboriginal teenager living in a squalid shantytown with her extended family who are divided between those more assimilated to the white world, like Trilby and her sister, and an older generation still attuned to the mythology of their culture.
A quietly ambitious girl, Trilby persuades her mother, Mollie (Justine Saunders), to move into a prosperous white neighborhood somewhat beyond their means but to Trilby’s dismay, the entire extended family moves with them.
With the white locals freely expressing their distaste for the new neighbors and Trilby's relationship with boyfriend Phil (Ernie Dingo) resulting in an unwanted pregnancy, things are not turning out how Trilby had imagined.
From award winning Director Bruce Beresford (The Club, Puberty Blues), Fringe Dwellers is a gentle yet compelling film about the difficulties of being a person who truly belongs in no world but their own.
| Status: | Normal |
|---|---|
| Run time: | 98mins |
| Origin: | AUSTRALIA |
| Aspect Ratio: |
If you like this, try these:
Member Reviews (7)
7 Member
Reviews
KR
says
An excellent film on life in an aboriginal settlement and the problems they face and have to overcome to live in white society. Very thought provoking.
Pam Blake
says
I think Fringe Dwellers is an excellent movie. Very true to life and believable.
I thoroughly enjoyed it
tiborg
says
Enjoyed tremenduously.It is politically incorect,but it is how our indigenous folks live in the outback.Funny one way, and sad in another.Anyhow it is their way of life and we all have to accept and respect it.
Don H.
says
russell1981
says
Landmark film which was among the first (after "Backroads") to portray Aboriginal Australians in contemporary settings. Beresford nearly got it right here without suggesting for a moment that there is an easy answer to the problems faced by modern-day Aboriginal communities such as the one portrayed in this film, he does describe some of the effects on a generation which has had to deal with being brought up during the period of the White Australia policies, which included Assimilation. There's a deceptive depth to the film: while the local white people are very stereotyped (and let's face it, many still are), here is a genuine, compassionate storyteller at work, giving white, middle-class Australia a glimpse into a completely different, yet not totally foreign, world. An important film, it has come under much criticism for its seemingly sentimental climax; depending on how you view it, however, the sentimentality may not appear overtly excessive at all. Good performances all round are led in particular by Nehm, who would, two years later, feature as an angry ghost in the psychological horror film "The Dreaming".
Ray Nugent
says
Joy Edmistone
says
An insight into living standards of aboriginals at that time.