Amy

Since witnessing the traumatic death of her rock-star father three years earlier, eight-year-old Amy has become mute and deaf, despite doctors declaring her physically fit. Her mother, struggling to make ends meet since the death of her husband, and determined to keep Amy out of the school system, has moved with her daughter to a remote farmhouse. When child welfare officers insist that Amy must return to the city to attend a school for the deaf, mother and daughter flee to the anonymity of a shabby working-class suburb in Melbourne populated by losers and misfits. Amongst this quirky cast of characters (the likes of which were a characteristic element of Australian features of the early nineties including Parker and Tass’ earlier work), they meet a young drop-out musician who finds a way to connect with Amy through music, allowing her to regain her voice through song. Despite a strong cast, the film suffers from an attempt to embrace a range of genres and styles including slapstick comedy, musical, family melodrama and gritty realism. Cast includes Alana De Roma, Rachel Griffiths, Ben Mendelsohn, Nick Barker and Kerry Armstrong.