Bordertown

An often forgotten TV series about a strange migrant experience... 1950's Australia saw mass emigration from Europe to the frontier countries, this mixture set in a migrant camp is varied and colourful to say the least. This series is highly recommended, and was too quickly forgotten.

We borrowed this miniseries from the Ottawa Public Library. My husband (an Australian) was mortified that we would spend 10 hours watching TV in one week (the library's time limit for videos), and after the first episode I also thought that we would probably not get through the lot. But eventually we got caught up in the program as it evolved, becoming somewhat bizarre even, reminding us from time to time of the magical realism of some Latin American writers.

The series takes place in a immigrants' welcome camp in the middle of nowhere in Australia, following the lives of administrators and immigrants ("inmates" according to a camp director). The story is a mixture of life in the camp and the individual histories of the immigrants, some of which is told in flashbacks. Certainly we felt that some stories were unusual even extreme, to the point of edginess. The outside world interferes little which is a bit odd considering that this camp was supposed to be a transitory place for the immigrants whose aim should be to find work and integrate into Australian life.

The writing definitely improves as the series advances, but the show remains a mixture of predictable and (sometimes very) surprising turn of events. The same can be said about the acting. I particularly liked Linda Cropper (Lady Bev) and of course Cate Blanchett (Bianca) is eery, creepy and ephemeral at the same time. Hugo Weaving is also excellent as an embattled English teacher while I must admit I often didn't understand what the actress who played his daughter was saying which was a pity as she was the quasi narrator at the beginning of each episode.

Overall, an interesting miniseries, worth watching if you have 10 spare hours on your hand. Don't expect to learn much about the struggles of new immigrants in Australian society, this is more a collection of quirky stories of a closed village.

One last thing: they didn't include the usual disclaimer at the end "No animal was harmed in the making this movie" even though quite a number of sheep get knocked off - as is typical in the Australian outback, I guess.

9 of 10 -- I went ahead and got this for the same reason many will, as it becomes more widely known - Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett BOTH thought it was worth doing? 'Hell, Yeah, lemme lookit that...' The characters in this TV mini-series are slo-oo-wly... splendidly developed... At the end of the second ep., I thinks 'yeah, this was worth the buy...' then the fourth, fifth and finally the absolutely devastating sixth eps., I will be telling everyone to give this a look... no Netflix folks, gonna hafta' pony-up. I recommend that you do. The deep love for the characters in the screen-writing makes up for the budget and the occasional loss of focus. These characters deserved the screen-time -you wanted more from every one of them- and I found myself thinking about them and the series quite a lot the following day / week that it took to get back. The acting is top, and the story-line is unusual...

note: as mentioned by another reviewer, this is -probably- not for kids. There is really no way to explain why without spoilers, but I'm not the most conservative person. I believe that it would be rated 15 in Australia, and I would agree with that.

I don't write reviews as a rule, and reading this you know why - but as a US Aussiephile I was looking, as a fan of the two widely-known actors, I bought (the actors that I didn't know very well have pages of credentials in international films that I've not seen - a terrific cast and casting work - Alex Menglet has a new and dedicated fan).

I'm so glad I took the chance...

I've just begun watching this series. As an English migrant who came to Australia in the 1960's and lived in a hostel (long since gone), I thought it would be a relatively realistic interpretation of the hostels; the problems, the fights, the isolation, the friendships. but it seems to be a very imaginative take on the situations encountered.

E.g; dining in a rather swish manner. Not where I stayed.

Having recently visited one of the remaining (unused)hostel sites in Australia; Bonegilla in Victoria, it is easy to work out that the location is meant to be there. Imagine travelling across the world from war ravaged Europe in 1947 to a small country location at least 4 hours from Melbourne and finding a dry, parched scene where rain is not plentiful and there is nowhere to go. My heart goes out to those people, but, many who stayed in Asutralia would say it was the making of them.

I will persevere with the series based on other viewers comments, but with an adjusted view of my expectations of the story.