The Combination

I wanted to watch something boring. I chose to watch The Combination. The beginning didn't promise me much, I even had to check if this was an Australian film, and actually it was!

I am neither Australian nor Lebanese, but I have met both cultures for at least a brief moment in my lifetime. So the question when watching a story of Lebanese in Australia was: are the facts just? Is this real? It is. Although people are depicted differently from those I have seen in the real world, parts of them that are true and up to a point are also shown.

Is the material educative? Yes. You can remember your history lessons, fighting skills, and how to be romantic.

Will you be bored? I was not.

This is a little Aussie movie that packs a punch. With a not particularly original storyline (older brother gets out of jail and tries to stop younger brother from going down the gangs - drugs – crime – jail path, a la "American History X"), the film puts the story in a Lebanese-Australian context. These Lebanese have a Christian background yet are still treated as aliens by the Anglos. Not surprisingly gangs form and are exploited by local criminals (the police, by the way, are pretty well on the sidelines).

What gives the story its power is the mapping out of the relationship of the older brother, former pro boxer John (George Basha) with his errant sibling Charlie (Firasss Dirani), and the effect of external pressures on their bond. John also develops an emotional relationship with a beautiful Anglo girl, Sydney, (Clare Bowen) but this is mild compared for the feelings he has for his family. There is plenty of headline stuff here, knifings in the street, drive-by shootings, teenage drug-dealing (cocaine seems to be the drug of choice these days) set against TV footage of our very own race riots at Cronulla in 2005.The ending, however, is not quite the disaster one might have expected.

One interesting question raised is: just what are Aussie values anyway? John as a migrant kid finds that his Lebanese relatives see him as an Australian, while fellow pupils see him as Lebanese. His Anglo girlfriend's father spouts the assimilationist line, but by the end Sydney seems to have gone over to the Lebanese side. Charlies' school is an ethnic battleground and relationships between the ethnic groups do not seem to be improving. John, however, shows every sign of climbing out of the mire and the film ends on a hopeful note.

David Field, a veteran character actor who specializes in downtrodden ocker types, has as a first time director come up with the aid of George Basha's script with a colorful, noisy dramatic, and yet authentic, story. He is aided by some standout performances from his leads and from a goodly number of not well-known but talented and experienced actors in some of the key supporting roles roles,. Doris Younane as John and Charlies' widowed mum Mary, John Brumpton as Sydney's dad and Michael Denkha as the local crime boss are particularly good, and the cinema photography and editing are first rate, though as I saw it screened there was a peculiar flicker.

The script is pretty crisp, but some of the characters could have done with a little more of their back story. How did Zeus the gang leader (the burly Ali Haidler, very convincing) get to be such a menace, for instance? What happened to John and Charlie's dad? There was also a surprising gap in the storyline when, about a third of the way through the gang is involved in the knifing of another student. They flee the scene but are arrested by the cops at gunpoint. In the next scene Charlie is free as if nothing has happened, and there is no further reference to the incident.

Even so, this is a bright start to Aussie movies for 2009, and the kerfuffle over it being withdrawn from some cinemas will have given it some much-needed publicity. Compared with "Underbelly", for example, this is a very honest piece of work.

THE COMBINATION is the first Australian film to be shown in it's country of origin this year and it's already become a news story - not for it's quality but because there have been incidents between what we are told are Lebanese gang members and theatre staff.

It would be nice if the film were to prove something substantial. What it is however is a passable gang warfare subject, made without undue sensationalism (it is particularly timid with sex) and preaching anti violence. The inclusion of recent race riot TV actuality tells us they want to be taken seriously.

The film takes a predictable multicultural line with old Australia dismissed as football, beer and meat pies, as against the leather lounges and sumptuous Arab meals with music to which hard man writer-star Basha introduces so blonde object of his affections Bowen, who comes from a family where scotch on the rocks seems to be the main food item. The Lebanese gang has one Asian kid, though he does back off when it's time to face off with the so mean (white) drug pushers. Basha gets a job in a gym run by stand up aborigines. The white kids spit and mug solitary members of the other gang.

The dynamic of school yard gangs is better, though we can't but wonder when the kids get to do any study, even though younger brother Dirani does once make it as far as the library.

One note performances are strong and the Western Sydney setting is effective and still unfamiliar. Particularly choice are the pusher's neighbors urging Basha to blow the low life away in the film's most inventive scene.

It would be nice to say this independently financed item was a break away from the blandness of funded filming here. However it is formula and lacks the dynamism of US films that covered this area - the work of Phil Karlson or young Scorsese and particularly American HISTORY X which appears to have inspired plot elements.

Those involved attack with a determination that it would be nice to see rewarded with worthwhile careers but they have the dis-spiriting history of Astralian production against them.

I urge you to see THE COMBINATION on a big screen in a good cinema with great sound! That is how i saw it last night and I was astonished at almost every part of this very slick crime thriller set in the teen world of Arab/Lebanese Western Sydney. Directed by Aussie actor David Field and with a stellar performance by Firass Dirani THE COMBINATION is right on target to identify a serious racial topic alive and festering in Australia: the idiotic crime aspirations of teen gangsters who learn from irresponsible 'gangsta' movies and music and then act them out in real life thus assigning themselves and their families to funerals and social distress. What a sharp movie! Made on a low budget and with it's social target well in sight, THE COMBINATION identifies the numerous factors in this suburban crime scene, from alienation by racial prejudice, fighting for no reason other than to be seen to be 'tough', the vicious stupidity of street fights, the catastrophe of the legacy of TuPac Shakur and the American gangsta image, and just plain teen anger amped into crime by media imagery. Finally a film that really identifies the root cause of teen boys killing each other in the suburbs... and the effect it has on their mothers, brothers, and friends. THE COMBINATION is seriously good cinema and George Basha whose book and lead role along with David Fields' direction makes this and Aussie/Lebanese film of major standout importance.

As someone who grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, this film rang true to me. I witnessed my share of bullying back in the day and gang warfare in schools. The depiction of these young men was reasonably accurate, albeit a bit over-done and overacted buy some novice actors.

For its time I think this film was pretty novel. The harsh realities play out when youths make terrible choices in fits of rage, fueled by greed and lack of education. The tragedy of the film is palpable till the end, even despite the script waning at times. I feel local and international viewers will enjoy this classic. 7/10.