Westgate

Over the course of a single day, an Italian-Australian single mother in Melbourne’s working-class west must draw on all her resources as she confronts the ghosts of her past.

It’s 1999, and Netta is doing her best to raise her 12-year-old son, Julian, in West Footscray. As a tough, strong-willed single mum, she has raised him to be self-sufficient while doing her best to protect him from the strains of life. But as Netta deals with financial woes, Julian’s health issues, an unreliable ex-husband and the tragedy that has cast a shadow over her life – the death of her father, killed along with many other migrant workers in the collapse of the West Gate Bridge in 1970 – she is barely able to keep her own head above water. Attempting to keep a promise she made to her son on a day where all of her pressures come to a head, Netta is left to search for new sources of strength and, at long last, face the grief she’s been running away from.

In Westgate, award-winning writer/director Adrian Ortega turns his gaze to the unsung multicultural communities who have shaped the city for generations. It’s a milieu he knows well: as a first-generation Australian from an Italian/Spanish migrant family, he was, like Julian, raised by his single mother in the western suburbs. Following his MIFF-selected debut, Cerulean Blue (2019), Ortega’s sophomore feature is anchored by rich period detail as well as a tightly framed aspect ratio that imbues the story with greater intimacy.