A Cidade da Vergonha

I remember watching this on tv several times in the 80's as a young girl just a few years younger than the character of Lizzie. I also lived in WA, so I have always found this grim and realistic to watch. Rewatched for the first time as an adult now in my 40's - I still find this a powerful and important film. It's obviously dated, but it is just perfect honestly. Once again I found myself near tears over Lizzie's fate and so angry that things like that can and do happen. I hope not to that extent in this day and age.

An excellent and absorbing Australian drama made and released in 1987, SHAME featuring Deborah Lee Furness is a genuine surprise powerhouse thriller. She plays a lawyer having a solo motorbike riding holiday when to her alarm, she gets trapped in a misogynistic country town. Local louts see her as "fair game" and then find the tables turned when her legal talons return to jail them for their brute behavior. A great role for any woman SHAME is well played by the talented and tough Furness. Interesting teen actor Simone Buchanan seen in the wonderful kids movie RUN REBECCA RUN is a local girl also terrorized by the boys.It is a combination of events against town women that sees Furness take a very tough legal stand, making the Civic leaders and their boozy blokes world accountable for this social damage. Possibly inspired by news items and well directed by Steve Jodrell, a (later) TV-only director SHAME did not get a big release thus crippling its initial available audience. Not screened on TV or profiled much after 1989, SHAME might benefit from a remake if the dynamics of this small taut film were slightly enlarged. Furness is the happy wife of Broadway performer and cinema X Man Hugh Jackman which is possibly why she is not seen on screens very often anymore.. A DVD release for SHAME is long overdue. A remake is also welcome. It is a good story and great pieces for strong unknown new actors. Other Australian films as strong similar references are THE BOYS and THE CARS THAT ATE Paris.

Not the Ingmar Bergman or Michael Fassbender films of the same title, this Australian drama focuses a female lawyer who decides to stay overnight in an unfriendly rural town while her motorcycle is fixed. Concerned about the apparent lawlessness in the town with an ineffectual police sergeant in charge, her stay soon becomes longer as she tries to convince a local teenager to speak out against those who have wronged her, leading to division and unease in the sleepy town. The messages at hand are hardly subtle and the pro-feminist angle is certainly nothing new, however, the film gets good mileage from its portrait of a town so cut off from the world that they believe themselves to be beyond the law, instead deciding their own regulations and ideas of right and wrong. When she is almost assaulted at night, the lawyer is told to simply "stay off the street" at night despite her protests that "I am a citizen; I have every right to do what I chose", while "these things happen" is the attitude of one local woman, dismissive of the charges that the lawyer wants her teen client to bring. A more interesting film may have probed into whether the lawyer created more harm than good by opening up a can of worms in regards to lawlessness in the town, but the film makes for decent viewing either way with Deborra-Lee Furness and Simone Buchanan both in fine form as the main female characters. While more eerie nighttime shots would have helped, the film is nicely photographed too on-location in Toodyay - less than an hour away from where I currently reside.

Powerful but restrained acting highlights this story of a lawyer who happens upon a family whose daughter has been blamed for her own gangrape, on the old theory that she must have asked for it. The characters gradually and quite believably overcome their natural tendencies toward denial and passivity in the face of overwhelming circumstances. There is a refreshing absence of crusading spirit and rhetoric such as you usually get in films dealing with themes of this kind. Rather, quiet, inner heroism emerges quite naturally from the various characters as they deal with the specific problems that have come upon them. Beautifully done, wonderfully and subtly acted. Watch it.

The story starts out with a lone woman (Ester Cartel) on a motorbike traveling the open roads in outback Australia. She unfortunately becomes involved with circumstance (in the wrong place at the wrong time scenario)….she drops her bike, which causes substantial damage. Arriving at the nearest township she encounters an ugly dominate force amongst the local young males. With her bike out of commission she has no other alternative but to seek accommodation (for a while) with the family of the mechanic from where she has ordered parts for her bike.

Gradually she learns that the population of this quaint little town consists of social bigotry, chauvinism, and apathy. Women are on the menu and the 'boys' think they can do anything they like to them without being punished. The so-called law enforcement is led by an incompetent police captain and the parents to these louts show no disciplinary measures to curb their children's behaviour. It sure does demonstrate how a small community can become feral out of pure boredom.

If you're looking for big screen names you probably won't find them in this production, I'm certain they're not well known outside Australia. One exception though would be Debra Lee Furness (the main character); she's married to Aussie actor Hugh Jackman. The entire cast pulled their weight to create a film with a fair bit of 'clout' and it made quite a noise when it was released. It certainly doesn't depict the idyllic country life associated with much of Australia and it wasn't afraid to show a different side either...(whether it's true or not is another thing).

The reason why I liked the film so much was because of the leading character. She was strong and defiant in what she thought was right, very similar to Ellen Ripley from Alien. I don't know why I find strong female characters so appealing, more than likely I'm fed up with the usual woman in distress roles.

Watch this if you enjoy strong female roles such as; Erin Brockovich, or G.I Jane.