Australia through the back door

by RICHARD JONES

IN 1990 a boatload of refugees is dumped on the north-west Western Australian coast from an Indonesian fishing boat.

They split into two ethic groups - Cambodian and Iraqi - as they await the promised bus to Perth. Naturally the bus never shows up.

A trek overland to find someone, anyone, seems the next best option. But only one Cambodian Arun (Kenneth Moraleda) is left not long after his group stumbles upon an outback service station.

The police arrive, but Arun escapes. A few hours later all the Iraqis bar Yousif (Rodney Afif) are arrested as well.

This mismatched couple team up and is joined by Ramelan (Sri Sacdprascuth), the Indonesian fisherman whose ineptitude in matters maritime led to the sinking of the boat offshore, not long after it had dropped off its passengers.

In pursuit of this trio is another group of three. Border patrol officers played by Glen Shea, Sean Mununggurr and Don Hany are an amiable and easy-going lot keen on having a footy kick to kick when they should be listening to their radio signals.

Eventually they get going yet we're still not convinced they form a dynamic front rank of protection in the vast spaces of arid and inhospitable Western Australia.

Lucky Miles' tone is primarily comic but what it does do is give the filmgoer a face to those people who enter this country through the back door.

21 September 2007

australianrules.com.au

Disclaimer