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We Can Be Heroes – Episode 3 (2005)

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clip Villawood

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

Clip description

Schoolgirl Ja’mie King (Chris Lilley) has discovered one of her 85 Sudanese World Vision sponsor children, Sonali (Nyathan Hoth Mai), has escaped to Australia and is in Villawood Detention Centre. Ja’mie and her friend Brianna (Emma Clapham) visit Sonali at Villawood.

Curator’s notes

Ja’mie and Phil Olivetti both provide an exaggerated study of vanity and self-serving behaviour. Ja’mie’s extreme self-assurance and sense of entitlement are matched only by her lack of awareness that there is any other way to behave. And it seems it’s only the audience who are really in on this – everybody in Ja’mie’s world believes her self-generated hype as well.

Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre is one of many around the country and government policies on refugees and ‘illegal immigrants’ have been a political flashpoint in the ‘90s and ‘00s (some comedic license has been taken with the situation: visitors would not have been allowed to use cameras, for instance). Here Lilley mines a cultural sore point for humour by combining it with a character that really doesn’t get it. Ja’mie’s behaviour, a comic combination of bald statements about things it might be more common to skirt around and unsubtle attempts at doublespeak, draws social and cultural undercurrents to the surface. Her self-styling as a humanitarian, in contrast with her obvious lack of empathy for Sonali and overt statements about her own looks and wealth, drip with an irony to which she is oblivious.

Ja’mie also appears in Lilley’s next series Summer Heights High (2007, see clip two).

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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.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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