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Queen of Hearts (2003)

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What is it like to die?

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

Clip description

Children splash around in a desert waterhole. Penny (Kirsty McDonald), face down in the water, is holding her breath. Suddenly, she is pulled up. Her cousin Steven (Rhimi Johnson Page) demands to know what she was doing. She tells him, imagining what it is like to be dead. The children around a fire, pass a bit of burning leaf between them, and puff on it as though it were a smoke. Penny grabs the pretend smoke off her cousin, and throws it in the fire, then scrambles up the rocks away from the group. The children arrive home without Penny. Penny is walking along the train tracks, when her mother Sue pulls up in the car.

Curator’s notes

by Romaine Moreton

The success of this script is its ability to communicate complex issues simply. The children at the waterhole are oblivious to Nanna’s illness and her dying, yet for Penny, there is a sense that the innocence enjoyed by the other children is being slowly corroded by her learning of her Nanna’s inevitable death.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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