"Bordertown" (1995) TV mini-series

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Directors:

Ken Cameron
Ian Gilmour

Writers:

John Alsop (writer)
Sue Smith (writer)

Release Date:

4 October 1995 (Australia)

Plot Keywords:

TV Mini-Series

Cast

Ray Barrett	...	Colonel Forsythe
Cate Blanchett	...	Bianca
Mitchell Butel	...	Nino Della Vergine
Linda Cropper	...	Bev Stafford
Petru Gheorghiu	...	Dante
Sophie Heathcote	...	Peggy
Kim Hillas	...	Maeve
Melita Jurisic	...	Adrianna Leeuwen
Norman Kaye	...	Pieter Leeuwen
Robert Mammone	...	Cesare
Alex Menglet	...	Mihaly Bassa
Geoff Morrell	...	Bates
Joe Petruzzi	...	Joe Della Vergine
Joshua Rosenthal	...	Dave
Peta Toppano	...	Diomira
Christine Tremarco	...	Louise Pearson
Hugo Weaving	...	Kenneth Pearson

Runtime:

50 min (10 episodes)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Goofs:

Continuity: In episode six, Bianca (an albino) has white eyelashes when we first meet her getting off the bus. Later on in the episode her lashes go back to brown.

Quotes:

Kenneth Pearson: Behold! The finger painted egg! My... GOD... the artistry! the vision! The universality of human experience!
[crushes egg in hand]
Kenneth Pearson: try engaging the mind Mr.Pearson, you'll find it will vastly increase your job satisfaction. I don't remember being this 'satisfied' since I last opened my veins in the bath.

Compelling viewing, though a somewhat uneven miniseries

We borrowed this miniseries from the Ottawa Public Library. My husband (an Australian) was mortified that we would spend 10 hours watching TV in one week (the library's time limit for videos), and after the first episode I also thought that we would probably not get through the lot. But eventually we got caught up in the program as it evolved, becoming somewhat bizarre even, reminding us from time to time of the magical realism of some Latin American writers.

The series takes place in a immigrants' welcome camp in the middle of nowhere in Australia, following the lives of administrators and immigrants ("inmates" according to a camp director). The story is a mixture of life in the camp and the individual histories of the immigrants, some of which is told in flashbacks. Certainly we felt that some stories were unusual even extreme, to the point of edginess. The outside world interferes little which is a bit odd considering that this camp was supposed to be a transitory place for the immigrants whose aim should be to find work and integrate into Australian life.

The writing definitely improves as the series advances, but the show remains a mixture of predictable and (sometimes very) surprising turn of events. The same can be said about the acting. I particularly liked Linda Cropper (Lady Bev) and of course Cate Blanchett (Bianca) is eery, creepy and ephemeral at the same time. Hugo Weaving is also excellent as an embattled English teacher while I must admit I often didn't understand what the actress who played his daughter was saying which was a pity as she was the quasi narrator at the beginning of each episode.

Overall, an interesting miniseries, worth watching if you have 10 spare hours on your hand. Don't expect to learn much about the struggles of new immigrants in Australian society, this is more a collection of quirky stories of a closed village.

One last thing: they didn't include the usual disclaimer at the end "No animal was harmed in the making this movie" even though quite a number of sheep get knocked off - as is typical in the Australian outback, I guess.