Call Me Mum

Margot Nash ( Vacant Possession) directs her long-awaited second feature, a dramatic series of interlinked monologues, which explore the human cost of black/white race relations in Australia. Kate, a white Australian foster mother (like the writer Kathleen Mary Fallon who has also written a play and a novel based on her experiences), is on a plane taking Warren, her 18 year-old Torres Strait Islander foster son, to meet Flo, his birth mother, who is gravely ill in a Brisbane hospital. Flo hasn't seen Warren since she took him to the hospital on Thursday Island when he was a toddler and the white authorities took him away. But as Warren, Flo and Kate all prepare themselves for the reunion, Kate's parents, Dellmay and Keith, are planning a different kind of reunion. Nash makes smart use of the film's restricted spaces, and the exceptional performances of Dayne Christian (Warren), Vicki Saylor (Flo) and Catherine McClements (Kate) cut straight through to the emotions.

Margot Nash is a Guest of the Festival

Among the finest of recent Australian films and certainly one of the most affecting and resonant.

Adrian Martin, The Monthly