After World War II, 4,000 Polish families came to Australia. They were Jews, Fascists, anti-Communists, and others dispossessed. In a large hostel, where even married men and women were housed in separate barracks, the adults lived for two years while they worked off the government's payment of their passage. Even though he is married to Anna and has a son, Julian falls in love with Nina and she with him. As they and others face the new situations and prejudices that await immigrants and as they take on aspects of Australian culture, old-country values reassert themselves. Julian decides what to do about love and family, and Nina must find a way to move on.
Direction
Turkiewicz's patient eye for emotional claustrophobia.
Production
Hostel barracks feel oppressively authentic, lived-in.
Acting
Dobrowolska's Nina: desire and restraint, perfectly held.
Director
Sophia Turkiewicz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Sophia Turkiewicz drew from her own Polish-Australian refugee childhood; her mother was in Silver City.
The real Silver City hostel in Broken Hill was demolished in 1980—filming recreated it in Adelaide.
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