La Spagnola

An Aussie movie in which everyone speaks Spanish? "Never bite the hand that feeds you," the schoolmaster tells his disruptive immigrant pupils, who need teenage Lucia (Alice Ansara) to translate for them. "This is the land of opportunity."

It's the Sixties. It's Australia. Lucia's mum, Lola (Lola Marceli), is an angry woman. Her husband has run off with a homegrown blonde, leaving her destitute, with bills to pay. She and Lucia live in a shack beside an oil refinery. Lucia has a pet goat, called Elvis, and her dad's pigeons in a cage.

Lucia is miserable, because her mother rages all day at everyone and everything. Lola is miserable, because she hates men and animals and birds and her daughter for being the progeny of her father. The problem is, she's a stunner and all the blokes want a piece of the action. Except there isn't any, because sex reminds her of that tom cat of a husband and all she dreams about is revenge. Of course, when the rent needs paying, she allows a little hanky, but no panky, at a price.

Steve Jacob's film is an odd mixture of surreal comedy and gritty realism. The story is told from Lucia's viewpoint and she is put through the wringer by her mother. All men in the movie have their brains in their trousers and the women know this and humour them accordingly. The trouble is, Lola is on one note. After a while, you pray for silence.

This is a decade before drug companies discovered anti-depressants to take the edge off anguish. All Lola has are sleeping pills and laxatives. She has her voice, as well, which she uses as a weapon.

"Stop crying," she screams at Lucia. "Or your eyelashes will fall out."

They don't, but sympathy does.