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MY MOTHER MY SON

Year: 2000

Classification: Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G

Runtime: 26 min

Produced In: Australia

Directed By: Erica Glynn

Produced By: Penny McDonald

Language: English

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The story of an Aboriginal mother and daughter [Mona & Kymmy], both victims of the stolen generation, who embark on a journey to regain custody of Kymmy's young son Rowland. They are determined to shed the baggage from their past and take control of their own lives and by so doing break the cycle of dispossession, broken families and broken homes.

Mona and her adult daughter Kymmy set out from their country home to get Kymmy's young son from foster care in the city.

Their objective is not an easy one. What starts as a hopeful journey becomes littered with physical obstacles that conjure reactions to unresolved issues from their past. The suppressed guilt, feelings of blame, abandonment, anger, failure and low self-esteem that they bear within themselves and towards each other. All stored and unspoken, awaiting for decades a catalyst to unleash themselves.

One of the main themes of the drama is that of morality and questions of right and wrong and how systems of judgement do not exist independent of context and perspective. Raised in missions and state wards, both Kymmy and Mona have in many ways internalised the value system and moral codes of a white class and culture that continues the reality of their poverty and victimisation but stack up against it. To go against it is their only hope of survival.

CAST: Lynette Narkle (Mona), Olivia Patten (Kymmy), Leslie Dayman (Aemon), Judi Farr (Helen), Heather Mitchell (Trish), Allan Green (Rowland)

Writer/Director - Erica Glynn
Producer - Penelope McDonald
Director of Photography - Steve Macdonald
Production designer - Elizabeth Mary Moore
Editor - Fiona Strain
Music composer - Jan Preston

Produced in association with SBS Independent
Produced with assistance from the New South Wales Film and TV Office

(c) 2000, Chili Films Pty Ltd

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