Customer Reviews

The Fringe Dwellers [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]

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A sad, depressing story dealing with cultural bigotry and societies unsympathetic treatment of Trilby Comeaway (Kristina Nehm) a young Aboriginal girl who has bought into the Anglo dream of upward mobility and assimilation into mainstream white society. Trilby talks her Mother into leaving their shabby dwelling in a aboriginal community and move into an all white neighborhood.

Trilby gets her wish however things don't turn out as planned. Shunned by her new white neighbors and unable to escape the constant presence of her extended family who follow them to their new home, she finds herself trapped between two cultures. Not acceptable to one and hounded by the other Trilby tries to find solace in the arms of her boyfriend Phil (Ernie Dingo) which leads to more sorrow in the form of an unwanted pregnancy and the childs untimely death.

Another excellent film dealing with the plight of the modern day aborigine and the damage done by trying to mainstream this ancient culture into white Australian society. A wonderful companion film to be viewed along with this one would be Werner Herzog's "Where The Green Ants Dream."

I bought this - Region 4 - Import DVD about a month ago. It comes in a clear plastic case with good cover art inside and out. The Disc also contains some nice special features if you're into that. Just make sure you have a - Region Free - player.

Story of an aboriginal family who tries to move out of the fringe into the main white community. This film gives insight to the plight of the aboriginal people.

The Fringe Dwellers of the title are Australian Aborigines living in shanty towns on the fringe of white Australia. Predictably, this is the story of a family acting out the destiny of an aboriginal people caught up in modernization and each and every cliche is included. We get prejudice, we get rage. We get your noble savage and your white liberal. Most of all, we got two people with different views of what matters and what life means.

Unpredictably, this movie manages to shed some light on the situation by not taking a preachy stance of its own. No one is particularly wrong here. This may madden the missionaries and the marxists, but it's really satisfying for the anthropologists and the audience.

The actors are mostly amateurs which adds a strange charm- the cinamatography is also amateur, which decidedly does not. Over-filtered sunsets alternate with washed-out daylight scenes. In spite of serious flaws, the honesty of the script and the beauty of the Australian landscape make this a movie worth seeing.

Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming novel, bang-BANG from kunati press.