Australian Rules

Paul Goldman | Australia 2002 | 95 min

Prospect Bay is a poor fishing village in South Australia, where Gary ‘Blacky’ Black is an unremarkable 16 year old in a battling family of four siblings.

He is also part of the local Australian Rules football team - albeit not its star player. His best friends are the edgy and very white Pickles and Dumby Red, a charismatic Aboriginal kid with a lovely sister, Clarence, whose affections Blacky slowly earns.

The racially divided town comes together on the football field, since the Aboriginal players make up half the team. Blacky’s mum offers some winning tips, but success at footy, however hard won, does not equate to success at home, as Blacky’s racist, abusive father, Bob, demonstrates in a moment of drunken violence that impacts on the whole community.

Cast	Nathan Phillips- Gary 'Blacky' Black Simon Westaway - Blacky's father Kelton Pell - ? Celia Ireland - Blacky's mum Kevin Harrington - ? Luke Carroll - Dumby Red Lisa Flanagan - Clarence Tom Budge - Pickles
Release dates	August 29th, 2002 - Australia First shown on the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
Video/DVD Release Date	2005
Awards	Best adapted screenplay (2002 Australian Film Institute Awards)
Rating	MA 15+ - Mature accompanied
Language level
Distributor	Palace Films
Soundtrack	Mick Harvey
Genre	Drama
Notes	Based on a novel by Phillip Gwynne, Deadly Unna. The film has been the subject of longstanding protests by the Coalition Against Australian Rules. Its members are upset the film dramatises a real-life incident—-the shooting death of two Aboriginal youths who broke into a pub in the 1970s.
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