Silver City (1984 film)

Silver City
Directed by Sophia Turkiewicz
Produced by Joan Long
Screenplay by Thomas Kenneally
Sophia Turkiewicz
Story by Sophia Turkiewicz
Starring Gosia Dobrowolska
Ivar Kants
Anna Jemison
Steve Bisley
Debra Lawrance
Music by William Motzing
Cinematography John Seale
Edited by Don Saunders
Release date
 1984
Running time
 101 min
Country Australia
Language English
Budget AU$2.3 million[1]
Box office AU$197,839 (Australia)

Silver City is a 1984 Australian film about post-war Polish immigration to Australia, following World War II. "Silver City" is the nickname of the immigration hostel in Australia. David Stratton calls it one of the best Australian films of the 1980s and thought that it should have made Gosia Dobrowolska a major star.[1]

Cast

Production

Sophia Turkiewicz had long been interested in making a film about post war migrants to Australia. She attended the Australian Film and Television School in Sydney where she made a short drama Letters from Poland about a Polish refugee. She started writing the film in 1978 while studying in Poland, originally concentrating on a ship full of Polish refugees going to Australia, then focusing on what happened when they arrived.[2] She sent an outline to Joan Long who agreed to produce. After Turkiewicz did five drafts, Long then suggested a co-writer be brought on board and Thomas Keneally - who had visited Poland as part of his research for Schindler's Ark - became involved.[1][3]

During the early 1980s Long and Turkiewicz became frustrated at the progress of getting up the film and for a time developed another project, Time's Raging based on stories by Frank Moorhouse but eventually went back to Silver City. The Money was eventually raised through 10BA tax concessions.[1]

Gosia Dobrowolska, who had newly arrived in Australia, auditioned for the lead and impressed despite not knowing any English. However she struggled at a reading of the script and the role was given to Megan Williams instead. Then there was a delay in financing which put the film back a year. Dobrowolska improved her English and impressed the director and producer in a play she was appearing in; Williams was let go and Dobrowolska was cast. (Williams later sued and the matter settled out of court.)[1]

Andrzej Seweryn and Sam Neill were candidates to play the male lead before Ivar Kants was cast. Shooting began in October 1983 and went for seven weeks.

Awards

Box office

Silver City grossed $197,839 at the box office in Australia,[4] which is equivalent to $502,003 in 2009 dollars.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p49-53
  2. ↑ Christine Cremen, "Sophia Turkiewicz", Cinema Papers, August 1984 p237-239, 287
  3. ↑ "Interview with SOPHIA TURKEWICZ", Signis, 19 November 1998 accessed 21 November 2012
  4. ↑ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office

Further reading

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