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Clip description
With Patsy’s condition deteriorating, Nadia (Sacha Horler) tells Bo (Russell Dykstra) he should come into the house to see his mother. When he enters the kitchen, Victor (Linal Haft) thinks he has finally come to apologise. Bo says he has nothing to apologise for. The fight begins in the kitchen and goes down the hall into the bedroom, where Patsy is dying.
Curator’s notes
There’s a strong but unspoken sense in the film that Bo and Victor are very alike, which is suggested by small rhyming details of their behaviour. The fight has been coming for a long time in the film’s dramatic structure. It has to happen, but even so, it’s surprising when it finally comes – not just for the ferocity, but the complete disregard of Patsy’s condition. Victor has been incapable of feeling anyone else’s pain right from the start of the film. Bo, on the other hand, tries hard to avoid provoking him. When it comes, he’s surprised at how murderous his emotions become. Patsy’s response to the fight is another surprise: after sticking with Victor through years of marriage, she drags herself from her sickbed and leaves him. She will die in a rented caravan, surrounded by her daughters, rather than under his roof.
