Tears

The lone desert highway leads from an Aboriginal settlement to a bus shelter which offers both the promise of opportunity and the danger of isolation. For the young teenage girl, the bus out of the desert means hope for legitimacy, freedom and an escape from the scars of a ruthless colonisation. For the boy, the escape might mean leaving behind the only family, community and safety he has ever known. Ivan Sen’s remarkable short film, utilising sparse dialogue and a harshly eloquent mise-en-scene, forces an audience to comprehend the terrible, seemingly futile optimism of will that is required of its young protagonists in imaging a future.