Blessed

As many other Australian movies, this work is hard to comprehend at a firs glance by the non-Australians, those used, especially, to enjoying the public places in accordance with their local rules heralded – NOT being punished for NOT listening a music without headphones/cell-phone deliberating last shag details in a computer zone if any, at a local public library, for instance.

Such a very specific flexible Australian approach in situ to human freedoms and liberties demanded from the rest of the world to follow uncompromisingly, has been seen sure-transparently in works by Ana Kokkinos, a movie-maker having already a world shocked with her brilliant "Head On" and definitely-Australian "The Book of Revelations", of which contexts are simple dominance of what-want-to-do attitude as a resistance against commoner's factual powerlessness and arbitrariness factually sustaining a grey boring grass-root subsistence of semi-egalitarians/semi-inmates of Australian ethnic minorities she belongs to, particularly.

This new movie is of inter-family relations and how strangers are interacting unknowingly in their common inability to change anything in lives run down in modern dead-boring Melbourne-a self-proclaimed vibrant cultural capital of Australia.

A gem not to miss.

Ana Kokkinos' Blessed is a heartbreaking tale of the love between mothers and their children, and is one of the finest achievements of Australian cinema. The flawless screenplay follows a number of characters through a single day, deftly telling their stories from different points of view until we develop a full understanding of the day's events. Geoff Burton's stunning cinematography focuses on unexpected things – a pattern on a wall, a flash of fabric – and then moves in close to the characters, creating a rich visual texture. The music of Cezary Skubiszewski is one of the finest movie scores of recent years, gently enhancing the drama and the brilliant performances of the actors. The entire cast is superb, but I must make special mention of Frances O'Connor, who gives the performance of her life, and the splendid Monica Maughan, whose brief appearance in the film is truly unforgettable. Blessed represents a triumphant return to form for Kokkinos, after the disappointing Book of Revelation, proving that the astonishing Head On was no fluke. Her uncompromising, insightful, deeply humanist eye makes her one of the most exciting directors working today. Blessed is a deeply moving film that you will never forget, and deserves to be showered with awards.

I have to agree with the Sydney Morning Herald blogger, Giles Hardie, who today put "Blessed" in his "10 Turkeys of 2009" list - in direct contradiction to his SMH Film Reviewer (the beyond middle aged Sandra Hall) who gave it 4 stars. Hardie nails it between the eyes and is worth quoting in full : "In a year of prolific Australian film making, it takes a stand out effort to make the worst film. Congratulations to the team behind Blessed who mistook melodrama for content, predictability for pathos, tokenism for meaning. The names behind this film were stellar, and that only made their fall from grace harder to bear." My only question is ..."what is it with Melbourne film-makers?" Do they have their own funding channel ... is it a Paul Cox thing ? Why do they continue to keep funding failed directors? Ana Kokkinos should have been sent back to screen writing 101 after "the Book Of Revelation" ... yet Film Victoria handsomely funded this overblown (& expensive) turgid soap opera. I don't get it. I think it's box office says it all - it appealed to no-one ! Ye Gods. 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Ana Kokkinos believes in socking it to the audience, as she has done in "Head On" and The Book of Revelation". This movie, based on Andrew Bovell's play "Who's Afraid of the Working Class?" is a stark study of parent-child or rather mother-child relationships in conditions that are almost bound to make them dysfunctional, the working class north-western suburbs of Melbourne. It is neatly constructed with the events of a couple of days being seen Rashomon-like, first from the children's' viewpoints, and then from the parents'. The different strands of the story are artfully interweaved and easy to follow.

Teenager Daniel (Harrison Gilbertson), wrongly accused of stealing the mortgage money from his parents, Tanya (Deborra Lee Furness) and father Peter played by William McInnes, goes off to do some real burglary. Stacey (Eva Larazza), who must be 13 or so, and a bit simple, has left home to join her protective older brother Orton on the streets (they doss down in a charity clothing bin). Their mother Rhonda (Frances O'Connor) already has one other child in a foster home and is a textbook welfare case, pregnant again. Meanwhile two schoolgirls Katrina (Sophie Lowe) and Tricia (Ana Baboussoras) have wagged school to do a bit of shoplifting. Katrina's mother Bianca (Miranda Otto) is off indulging her pokies habit while Trisha's seamstress mother Gina (Victoria Haralabidou) has managed to drive her son Roo (Eamon Farren) on to the streets as well, where he is soon picked up by a porno film maker. One more child is involved, an adult James (Wayne Blair), who has issues about his relationship with his mother (Monica Maughan) as well.

I suppose it says something for the mothers that despite the neglect, they rush into action when something goes wrong, because deep down, they all care – the mothering instinct should not be underestimated. Not all of the stories are happily resolved but at least some relationships are restored.

Visually this film is very close-up and personal, and a challenge for the actors, who rise to it pretty well. Frances O'Connor is so good as the twitchy tattooed chain-smoking Rhonda I almost forgot it wasn't a documentary. Miranda Otto as Bianca shone also, and all the kids were good. Perhaps this film is light on entertainment value but it is absorbing as human interest – enthralling even. A much better film than "The Book of Revelation'.

I attended the International Premiere of "Blessed" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Many of my favorite films have come from Australia, so I had high hopes going into "Blessed," and was not disappointed. This is just the kind of film I look for -- a sweet little gem that will make you laugh and cry.

"Blessed" follows five mothers and seven kids -- three boys and four girls -- aged 14-18, as they wander the streets after having run away or been abandoned by their parents. Left to fend for themselves, each teen's plight is poignantly portrayed by a talented young group of Australian actors culled from thousands. Mostly unknowns, I did recognize the terrific Harrison Gilbertson as Daniel, who starred in "Accidents Happen," one of favorites from this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The mothers are appropriately anguished at the apparent loss of their loved ones, not knowing whether or not they'll ever come home. The vulnerable teens fall prey to their own as well as others' desires, and there are enough twists and turns to add additional layers to an already compelling set of stories. "Blessed" left me with a smile on my face and a tear in my eye. It's a superb character-driven study of the bond between mothers and children.