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Jack Flange (Alex O’Loughlin) has his eye on a local girl, Pearl (Diana Glenn). His boss Brownie (David Field) watches another woman – his estranged wife Trish (Kerry Armstrong), who has started farming her own leases nearby. Brownie’s oysters are in trouble, but he won’t accept the advice of his father, Mumbles (Jim Norton), who says he needs his wife’s help. Jack checks at the post office every day, but the package containing his robbery takings never arrives. The postman Ern (Don Bridges) doesn’t like his impatience.
Curator’s notes
A lot of the film takes place against a background of hard physical labour, but in the most stunning river landscapes. Reeves establishes a strong sense of the precarious nature of the trade, but overlays a sense of deep tribal superstition, most of which comes from the old Irish father, known as Mumbles. She never really explains what makes the oysters ‘blow’, or how Trish could have saved them with her ‘gift’. It’s a mystery. We are left with a sense that the balance of the river isn’t just a matter of rain, nutrients and lack of pollution – the people who farm these oyster beds must themselves be in a state of harmony for everything to work.
