Broken English - DaaVeeDee

Broken English (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 4 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1996 and produced in:
New Zealand ( Australia, New Zealand )

Directed By:
Gregor Nicholas

Written By:
Gregor Nicholas
Johanna Pigott

Actors:
Rade Serbedzija ..... Ivan
Aleksandra Vujcic ..... Nina
Julian Arahanga ..... Eddie
Marton Csokas ..... Darko
Madeline McNamara ..... Mira
Jing Zhao ..... Clara
Li Yang ..... Wu
Elizabeth Mavric ..... Vanya
Temuera Morrison ..... Manu
Michael Langley ..... Jura
Morena Tutuguro ..... Sashka
Mona Ross ..... Auntie Marja
Barbara Cartwright ..... Jasmin
Patrick Wilson ..... Dave
Greg Johnson ..... Doug

Synopsis:

Ivan is the fierce patriarch of a family of Croatian refugees in Auckland. Nina is his daughter, ready to live on her own, despite his angry objections. Eddie is the Maori she takes as her lover. Nina works at a restaurant where Eddie cooks. For a price, she agrees to marry a Chinese, another restaurant employee, so that he (and his Chinese wife) can establish permanent residency. The money gives her the independence she needs to leave her parents' house and move in with Eddie. Complications arise when Eddie realizes the depth of her father's fury and the strength of Nina's family ties.

Along with Once Were Warriors, Broken English effectively captures contemporary New Zealand as a society in transition. Broken English dramatizes how the effect of immigration to the cities of New Zealand by both its native peoples, the Maoris, and Europeans seeking refuge from political persecution has not produced a harmonious melting pot. Ivan (Rade Serbedzija) is an embittered Croatian who fled to his wife's native Aukland when war broke out in Bosnia. Brooding over TV news reports on what is happening to his homeland (and displaying more than a little guilt over his flight from there), Ivan lashes out at anyone outside of his insulated Croatian community, including his gentle Maori neighbors. His drug-running business allows him a comfortable lifestyle, but he's still irritated that his young adult daughters won't mind him. The eldest, Nina (Aleksandra Vujcic), is a waitress who takes up with a colleague, a Maori cook named Eddie (Julian 'Sonny' Arahanga, who also appeared in Once Were Warriors), in part because he's attractive but also to tweak her father. Complicating matters is an arranged marriage Nina has agreed to with a Chinese immigrant colleague at the restaurant; he's willing to pay her 16,000 dollars just to make his residency legal, so he can be with his girlfriend, Clara. Originally rated NC-17 for an energetic but hardly explicit sex scene between Nina and Eddie, the film was later edited to earn an 'R' rating.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 29 October, 2008.

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