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Clip description
The bank is about to foreclose on the Bell family property, although Matilda (Amy Terelinck) doesn’t yet know. The rural councillor Clive (John Hargreaves) visits Ben and Ellen Bell, as they prepare to call it quits. Ben and his co-workers Gary (Steven Vidler) and Tim (Gary Cooper) prepare to shoot their remaining stock, rather than let them die of thirst. Matilda is heartbroken by the news. She refuses to go to the city.
Curator’s notes
The reality of the drought now becomes very harsh indeed, for everyone. Matilda’s father feels like a failure; his father and grandfather were able to outlast previous droughts on this land, but he has succumbed. Earlier scenes have made clear that he has felt suicidal. The film gives so much attention to Matilda’s dog Dingo, because one of the last things her father does, before they leave, is to shoot the old dog, believing it would be cruel to take it to the city. Matilda then stops speaking.
