Spagnola, La

This Australian film had the misfortune to be released the same year as two other strong domestic competitors, Moulin Rouge and Lantana and though winning AFI awards for Original Score and Sound Design, was largely overlooked at the box office

Whilst not entirely successful with a script that tends to the repetitive it has many small pleasures, husband and wife team Anna-Maria Monticelli (who wrote and produced) and Steve Jacobs (who directed) delivering a visually-pleasing and entertaining, slightly surreal battle of the sexes/coming-of-age comedy that has a recognizably Australian quirkiness yet, although set in a migrant community in regional New South Wales in 1960, avoids the in-your-face ockerisms typical of such fare.

I suspect that its biggest problem is that although the actors are individually excellent, especially Spanish actor, Lola Marceli,as the mother and Alice Ansara as her daughter, both in their first feature, and acknowledging that this is not intended to be a realistic drama, there is little sense of the character's existence or interactions beyond the requirements of the script which tends to over-indulge in cultural stereotyping..

FYI: Somewhat surprisingly the film was Australia's submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. 

 

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