SEPTEMBER
Director: Peter Carstairs Stars: Xavier Samuel, Clarence John Ryan, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Kelton Pell, Sybilla Budd
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
A beautiful film, modest in scale, a portrait of a period which raises significant Australian issues. It is a story with few words and a great deal of contemplation of the countryside and the characters.
The story takes place in 1968, a year after Australians voted that aborigines should have the vote (something forbidden in the 1901 Commonwealth constitution). However, rights for aborigines and the overcoming of racism and racist superiority are matters still in progress. Part of the Australian examination of the past and a basis for apologies to indigenous Australians is looking at stories like this.
The plot is straightforward. Two teenagers, one black and one white, are friends. They share a lot of time together, especially after school boxing and sparring – the white boy’s after school time since the aboriginal boy works on the farm all day. The work of their fathers symbolises their status. The white man is the farm owner. The aboriginal man works for the white man and lives in a house away from the main house.
New neighbours arrive including a young girl who has an attachment to the white boy.
New legislation comes in whereby aboriginal workers are to be paid just wages. The owners feel that they cannot pay and let their workers go.
Both these events cause a distance between the two friends, a growing hostility and, unfortunately and inevitably, a separation.
While September is a West Australian harvest month and is the beginning of spring, the tone of the film and its issues are rather autumnal.