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clip 1Clip description
At the local service station, Heidi (Abbie Cornish) inquires about a job. The young woman behind the counter, Bianca (Hollie Andrew) is curt and unfriendly. Heidi buys a pair of red gloves and goes walking by the lake. Back at the motel where she spent the night with Joe the previous evening, she rehearses calling for the job. In front of the mirror, she pretends to be Joe, telling her he loves her.
Curator’s notes
The film is unusually frank about a young girl’s sexuality, especially the confusing ways it may play out in her behaviour. Heidi’s initial characterisation in the film is one inappropriate sexual advance after another, almost as if she has a personality disorder. Cate Shortland has said her inspiration to make the film was partly a young girl she knew when she worked in a home for damaged girls in Sydney. The character was written as a 15-year-old, but she became a 16-year-old in order to avoid problems with censorship. As in clip one, Shortland uses a scene in front of a mirror to suggest Heidi’s sense of childish exploration. Her desire to hear the words of love and romance is very strong, both here and in clip three.
