Pat Drake

Set in the heteroglossia world of Barton Detention Centre somewhere in Australia, asylum seekers (UNCs, unlawful non-citizens) wait indefinitely and under guard for their protection visas never to materialise. This moving miniseries gets more harrowing episode by episode as each character loses their emotional and ethical bearings and we are left watching instinct drive behaviour whilst wondering what on earth is to be done. There are some who appear to cope, others lose everything, deluded baddies, deluded jobsworths; delusion pervades everything as we question can this be real whilst knowing that it is. It’s strong and very sad and brutal storytelling; based on true events one of which is that now Australia detains people off-shore where access is even more difficult than portrayed here.

This is truly dreadful - unbelievable characters & behaviour and even the occult doesn’t save it.

In addition to other reviews, with which I largely agree, I’d draw attention to the the Big Skirts that enveloped all the Women and which formed an impermeable membrane and equivalence for the strategic economic protection provided by the male characters. The Skirts were characters in every scene, looking busy and swishing into place. I loved this book as a child, read it over & over, not sure I’d need to see this film more than once.