Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

Clip 3: Crying wolf

2 min 59 sec

Taken from the short film Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (1999)

Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be PG

A video which normally appears on this page did not load because the Flash plug-in was not found on your computer. You can download and install the free Flash plug-in then view the video. Or you can view the same video as a downloadable MP4 file without installing the Flash plug-in.

Availability of the complete title

Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.

Curator’s clip description

The three – Melanie (Alyssa McClelland), Elvis (Luke Carroll) and Perry (Jie Pittman) – are holed up in an old house. Perry and Elvis are playing cards and banter between themselves. Melanie is bound and gagged. Unable to stand it any longer, Perry undoes the ropes and removes the gag from Melanie’s mouth. The boys brag about being master criminals, and are insulted when Melanie tells them she thinks otherwise.

Curator’s notes

The underlying dynamic between all characters is one of youth, and the dream of another place, chronic themes of the young in isolated areas. The relationship between Perry and Elvis is one of culture, language and blood, but Melanie offers Perry something else – the chance to entertain the fantasy of ‘what if’. The violence of the situation that has thrown them all together eventually ends with a volatile break up; and perhaps here is the subtext of the film – the social relationship between an Indigenous male and a non-Indigenous female is contextualised first by violence, even though both are dreamers set adrift and alienated by society.

Romaine Moreton, curator

australian screen