Vacant Possession (film)
Encyclopedia
Vacant Possession is a 1995 Australian
drama film
, directed and written by Margot Nash. The film was nominated for 5 awards at the 1995 Australian Film Institute
.
This is a film about memory - personal and collective. To quote the director: 'the story of a house, land and two families - one white, one Aboriginal - both living in the shadow of the past'. The deliberately ambiguous title could refer to the house itself, but also the history of White Australia (see Terra nullius
).
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, directed and written by Margot Nash. The film was nominated for 5 awards at the 1995 Australian Film Institute
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
.
Plot
Following the death of her mother Tessa (Pamela Rabe), a young woman, returns after many years to the weather-beaten family home on the shores of Sydney's Botany Bay. But the old family home begins to bring old wounds more and more to life. The story unfolds through flashbacks yet as it progresses the flashbacks merge into the present as it becomes apparent that the situation Tessa has returned to is very much the result of that which passed before.This is a film about memory - personal and collective. To quote the director: 'the story of a house, land and two families - one white, one Aboriginal - both living in the shadow of the past'. The deliberately ambiguous title could refer to the house itself, but also the history of White Australia (see Terra nullius
Terra nullius
Terra nullius is a Latin expression deriving from Roman law meaning "land belonging to no one" , which is used in international law to describe territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished...
).
Cast
- Pamella Rabe ... Tessa
- John Stanton ... Frank
- Toni ScanlanToni ScanlanToni Scanlan is an Australian actress best known for her role in the Australian television police drama Water Rats as Helen Blakemore. She is one of the only three actors to appear in the series from when it started to when it ended....
... Joyce - Linden WilkinsonLinden WilkinsonLinden Wilkinson is an Australian film, television and theatre actress and writer. She is perhaps best known for her recurring role in soap opera Home and Away playing 'The Believers' cult leader Mumma Rose. Her other roles include appearances on Prisoner: Cell Block H, A Country Practice, Water...
... Kate - Rita Bruce ... Aunty Beryl
- Olivia Patten ... Millie
Nominations
- Australian Film InstituteAustralian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
1995:- AFI Award - Best Editing: Veronika Jenet
- AFI Award - Best Director: Margot Nash
- AFI Award - Best Screenplay: Margot Nash
- AFI Award - Best Achievement in Sound: Tony Vaccher, John DennisonJohn DennisonJohn Sebastian Dennison is a New Zealand poet, as well as a poetry scholar who has published on the poetry of New Zealand poet James K. Baxter.-Poetry:...
, Bronwyn Murphy & John Patterson