![]() “It was very clear for us that our role was to represent the young people of Australia who are very concerned about the future and how climate change might affect their future,” she says. But she hopes it will once again bring to the fore the role that climate change played in the extreme conditions that fuelled the fires, a conversation she says was sidelined as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.Įliza Scanlen says her and Hunter Page-Lochard’s characters in Fires represent the young people of Australia. Scanlen acknowledges that the six-part series might be too raw and intense of the many Australians adversely affected by the catastrophic bushfires. “That’s what I hope this TV series will be and that’s what I felt reading it, that it was an opportunity to bring those personal experiences of loss and community and contribution into a TV drama format.” ![]() That feeling of helplessness was horrible, not being able to do anything about it and this felt like in, some small fraction of a way we were (able to do something about it).” “We have all seen Australia really suffer as a result of it and it was really frightening to watch what happened. “Even though I wasn’t directly affected by the fires, everyone had a very emotional response to it,” she says. Not only was her role of young volunteer firefighter Tash one of two characters who ties together the six separate stories of desperation, resilience and survival, she felt it would also give her a chance to contribute – even if only in a small way – to an issue and a cause she had missed while working overseas. ![]() She knew right away it was exactly the kind of project she wanted to be associated with. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AFI I can’t wait to see what she does next.Eliza Scanlen accepts the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress during the 2020 AACTA Awards presented in Sydney last November. There’s a fearlessness to Murphy’s film-making, a slightly wayward, maverick spirit. Crystalline and pure, it’s such an unexpected choice, so utterly right for the scene that plays out. I particularly loved the use of a children’s choir version of the traditional sea shanty Santianna, which accompanies Moses’s rock-bottom dash to the home of his estranged mother. Instead, she assembles a thrillingly eclectic soundtrack, which embraces everything from a string quartet version of the Stranglers’ Golden Brown, to Vashti Bunyan’s twinkling Diamond Day, to Sudan Archives’ euphoric Come Meh Way, with its whirling harmonics and percussive violins. Murphy rejects the kind of handholding score that would wring every last drop of sentiment from the material. The symbiosis of craft and character extends to the dancing, uninhibited camera and to the editing, which has a teenager’s headlong impatience and lurching attention span.īut what really elevates the film is the use of music – crucial, given that both Milla and her mother are musicians. The connection between them is real and tangible. Her use of colour sings, subliminally reinforcing this unlikely bond between a dying girl and a junkie: the way that Milla’s teal wig matches the too-big shorts that engulf Moses’s unsteady twiglet legs on a stolen night out, their lilac shirts accidentally harmonise, like a shared private joke. Murphy grasps every means of cinematic expression available to her. The screenplay is adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her own play, but the storytelling here does not feel rooted in the theatre. Meanwhile, Milla’s parents have to balance the urge to chase Moses away for ever against the knowledge that he makes their daughter more alive than she has been for months. In addition to Milla’s cancer medication, there are the prescription pills that smooth the edges off her highly strung mother (Essie Davis): rich pickings for an enterprising addict. Like her character, Scanlen makes every moment count – a single loaded look, which sweeps between her parents and Moses, contains a symphony of emotions, starting with adolescent defiance and ending with an ache of uncertainty and longing.īut what draws Moses, initially at least, is the realisation that his new friend’s family home is an all-you-can-eat drugs buffet. Photograph: Lisa Tomasettiįor Milla, it’s a headlong rush into first love.
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