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Vacant Possession (1994)

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clip ‘They think they own the place’

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Tessa (Pamela Rabe) and her sister Kate (Linden Wilkinson) arrive at the old family home on the shores of Botany Bay. They are greeted by Auntie Beryl (Rita Bruce), the Aboriginal neighbour, and her granddaughter Millie (Olivia Patten), who is looking for her cat. Millie explains why they call the cat 'Captain Cook’.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

Property is anything but private in this movie. The house is continually being invaded, often by the black neighbours who used to rent it. These scenes are meant to scramble the idea of ownership, as is the use of the phrase ‘They think they own the place’ – uttered by two different characters in this scene. They did once own the place, in that sense. The land was a grant, won in a lottery of ‘vacant Crown land’, we learn later. The film has several layers of mysticism – the flight of aeroplanes over the house is given several meanings – perhaps as a metaphor for invasion and a reminder of Tessa’s conflict with her father. The flight of the bird when Tessa inquires about Beryl’s family is a reference to Mitch, who was Beryl’s son and is now dead (although we don’t know that yet).

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