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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Young Lebanese Australian John (George Basha) comes home from jail to live with his widowed mother (Doris Younane) and wild younger brother Charlie (Firass Dirani), who is still at school.
'Having learned his lesson the hard way, he struggles to stop Charlie from making the mistakes that he made. When he finds out Charlie has become involved in drug dealing, he intervenes, inadvertently putting the family in peril.
'Meanwhile John finds that assimilating into white Australian society is less than straightforward when he starts dating a young Caucasian woman called Sydney (Clare Bowen), whose parents are against her seeing a man from his ethnic background.'
Source: Australian Screen. (Sighted: 29/8/2013)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Mama's Boy
2020
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 79 no. 2 2020; (p. 157-161) 'I was seven and had just finished swimming practice at Sutherland Shire Leisure Centre. There I stood in the shower rooms—brown, nervous at the sight of so much white flesh, and very embarrassed.' (Introduction) -
Reel Bad Lebs
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 5 December no. 94 2019; 'Up until I was nine years old, my favourite film was Blood Sport. Frank Dux, who was played by Van Damme in the prime of his career, competed against the world’s best fighters in the underground martial arts tournament called the Kumite. Early in the film, a brown-skinned man in a traditional Saudi headdress named Hossein tries to force the white female lead, Janice, upstairs to his hotel room for an ‘interview’. When she refuses, Hossein raises his open hand to slap her. Fortunately, Frank Dux intervenes, grabbing Hossein’s arm and winning a bet against him, which spares the blonde-haired damsel from imminent physical and sexual assault. As a result, Frank gets the girl the consensual way – they take a friendly walk, making fun of Hossein as they meander, they have a romantic dinner and then they head back to Frank’s hotel room for a wholesome night of procreation.' (Introduction) -
Wogs Laughing - All the Way to the Bank
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 31 January 2016; (p. 28) -
The 100 Best Australian Films of the New Millenium
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 22 September 2016; -
Controversy Corner : The Combination (2009)
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 14 August 2016;
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Fresh Look at Boys and Bigots in Battle
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 26 February 2009; (p. 17)
— Review of The Combination 2009 single work film/TV -
Stuck in Our Divided Suburbs
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28 February - 1 March 2009; (p. 22)
— Review of The Combination 2009 single work film/TV -
Film Pulled as Audience Starts Fight
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 2 March 2009; (p. 5)
— Review of The Combination 2009 single work film/TV -
The Combination Pulled from Screens After Violence
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: National Indigenous Times , 5 March vol. 8 no. 172 2009; (p. 12)
— Review of The Combination 2009 single work film/TV -
Rough Justice
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2009;
— Review of The Combination 2009 single work film/TV'IN ARGUMENTS around movies, there will always be someone telling someone else to take the film on its own terms; don’t ask a Western to be a contemporary suburban soap, don’t ask the soap to be a documentary. But it’s not always that easy; people do read themselves into Neighbours, their neighbours into Kath and Kim; and the boundaries keep on blurring. There are still, and lucky for us, great examples of classical narrative (from the past year or so, The Painted Veil and Gran Torino); outside its field, drama, fiction, documentary and film-essay shade into each other. We go to all of them looking for strangeness, wanting to be surprised, and wanting also to have what’s familiar played back. When Jean-Luc Godard said that “cinema is truth twenty-four times a second” he wasn’t talking about the photographic registration of material facts, but about what the complex organisation and re-organisation of sounds and images makes possible for imagination, empathy, insight.' (Introduction)
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Lebanese Story
2008
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 8-9 November 2008; (p. 26-28, 30) -
How the West Was Won Over : Gang Drama Comes Out Firing
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28 February - 1 March 2009; (p. 21) -
Australian Brawl
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27 February 2009; (p. 4-5) -
Life Imitating Street-Survival Art
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 7-8 March 2009; (p. 3) Sacha Molitorisz reports on the withdrawl, and later reinstatment, of The Combination from screens in western Sydney following some violent incidents at Greater Union cinemas. -
Combination's Second Run
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 4 March 2009; (p. 10)
Awards
- 2009 nominated AWGIE Awards — Film Award — Feature Film Original
- Sydney, New South Wales,