Teesh and Trude

Tiny triumphs in the lives of the two eponymous women, but a major triumph for three other women: the writer, producer and director. Starting with the most recalcitrant of material: cigarettes and beer, kitchens and toilet cisterns, tampons and hyperactive kids, unlucky women and untrustworthy men, the film-makers turn a literally kitchen-sink drama into a reaffirmation of the resurgence of the human spirit in the face of the most annoyingly trivial kinds of adversity. The film has been written with great care (although a good deal of quite realistic vulgarity) the editing is tight, the production design is witty, and the narrative arc comes to a delightful closure.

A rewarding and engaging independent movie with a tough script and gutsy performances from the two female leads. It seems we can stomach gritty working-class films if they come out of the UK - Ken Loach say, or Mike Leigh - but in Australia if it's not Kath and Kim or The Castle then we find the portrayals a little hard to handle. Teesh and Trude offers us a day in the life of two working class mums doing it hard (very hard) and manages, through some fine directing, to deliver to these women some redemption at the end of a difficult bloody day. Peter Phelps is great as the buffoon boyfriend, Susie Porter and Linda Cropper navigate frustration and despair with dignity and humour. The direction (by Melanie Rodriga) searches for the hidden beauty in the council flat and the shopping centre and somehow, manages to find them without resorting to sentimentality or cheap laughs.

Why cant i watch teesh and trude? Ive been searching everywhere for this film for 18 years now. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Why cant i watch teesh and trude? Ive been searching everywhere for this film for 18 years now. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

People who pan this film miss the unique Australian-ness of it. The sad and sorry demographic represented by the two women is so realistically portrayed, so that while we almost depise Teesh for her slack layabout lifestyle, as she reluctantly reveals more about herself we cannot but help feeling stirrings of empathy. Susie Porter's performance is fine, and for that matter so is Linda Cropper's as the sad mother desperate to see her kids again but so caught up in a loser's lifestyle that she can hardly surface for air.

This film is a little gem that grows on the viewer and shouldn't be dismissed.