HEARTS & BONES : Tuesday 21st July 2020.

'HEARTS & BONES' which I saw last week at my local independent movie theatre is an Australian drama film Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Ben Lawrence in his feature film debut following his 2018 documentary 'Ghosthunter'. Shown initially at the June 2019 Sydney Film Festival and originally slated for an April 2020 release, after its showing around the film festival circuit and due to the impact of COVID-19 its wide Australian release was cancelled as cinemas nationwide were closed down. Instead it was shown on a number of streaming platforms from early May, but fortunately since cinemas have reopened it is being showcased in a select number of theatres. This film has collected five award wins and a further seventeen nominations, and has garnered positive Reviews from Critics.

Having recently arrived back home in Sydney from an overseas assignment in Iraq, acclaimed war time photographer Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is interrupted during a moment of passion with his former ballet dancer turned teacher partner Josie Avril (Hayley McElhinney). Knocking on the door of their warehouse loft style home is Sebastian Ahmed (Andrew Luri) and immigrant from South Sudan who arrived in Australia fifteen years prior. He is very happily married to Anishka (Bolude Watson), they live in a very cramped apartment, have one young child and another due. Sebastian has seen a ramshackle house for sale somewhere in Sydney's Western suburbs that he has his heart set on to buy for himself and his growing family, and to get out of their constricting apartment.

Sebastian works in a commercial laundry by day, and drives a taxi by night, and Anishka works cleaning houses by day and in a restaurant at night, giving up their young child to a kindly child minder for fifteen hours a day. Ahmed heard a radio interview with Fisher, and then through making enquiries at a book store which was selling copies of his published works, was able to track down the photographer. Ahmed is concerned that a planned exhibition of his most famous works taken from decades of covering many of the worlds war torn hot spots, will include images of a massacre taken in his South Sudanese village fifteen years previously, in which he lost his wife, two sons and his daughter.

Upon their first meeting Fisher is dismissive of Ahmed, until Fisher collapses in the street with a mild seizure and then takes him to the hospital in his taxi. From this point on a bond is forged between the two men. Ahmed invites Fisher to attend a meeting of his community choir in which he meets other African refugees who all sing and play musical instruments as a form of therapy. Fisher is at first reluctant to 'intrude' but goes along and becomes friends with the other choir members. All the while Ahhmed urges Fisher to bring his camera to take photos of the choir, and still keeps pestering him about not including the photos of his village massacre in his upcoming exhibition. One evening Fisher offers to drive Ahmed home after a choir practice session. Ahmed then invites the photographer in to meet his wife and to have some supper. Before going in, Ahmed confides in Fisher that Anishka knows nothing of his past life, his first wife and his three children and what became of them of them all - and he wants it kept that way.

Fisher is non-plussed about the upcoming exhibition anyway. He is increasingly suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety brought about by decades of being in very close proximity to gun fire, explosions, death and destruction and the fact that Josie announced that she is fifteen weeks pregnant upon his return home, a little matter that they had seemingly previously agreed to would not happen since they lost their first child, a daughter, a couple of years ago shortly after childbirth due to some medical condition.

Fisher agrees to let Ahmed trawl through his portfolio of photographs taken at the time and ponders his request to pull the pictures from the upcoming show. Ultimately Fisher agrees to pull the pictures from his exhibition and gives the portfolio of photos to Ahmed. In the meantime, Ahmed buys the run down house and he and Fisher begin ripping up the flea infested carpets, tearing down the window coverings and generally start on the process of making it liveable. Ahmed has also decided that he needs to come clean with his wife and tell her of his history that weighs so heavily on his mind. He musters the courage to do so, and she rebels against this revelation, saying that she needs time to digest this news and orders him out of their apartment for two days. He goes to stay in his new house.

While this is going on, Fisher makes a discovery about Ahmed as seen in one of the photos from that South Sundanese massacre of fifteen years prior, and it reveals something about Ahmed's past that he has tried to cover up, and is more than likely his motivation for not wanting the photo's shown at Fisher's exhibition. Fisher confronts Ahmed with his discovery and the pair share heated words which ends up with Ahmed physically throwing Fisher out of the house. Josie calls Anishka over to her house where she confronts her with the truth behind the photograph. Josie is left speechless by Anishka's reaction to the photograph and the story behind it, as Anishka tears the photo out of a recently published book of Fisher's works, and goes to confront Ahmed at the house. Anishka says that their marriage is over.

Meanwhile, Fisher and Josie are not getting on so well, and Fisher storms out of their house with his kit bags packed ready to fly off to his next assignment in Syria, much to Josie's chagrin. In driving to the airport at the last minute he takes a detour to visit Ahmed in his new house, only to discover that Ahmed had attempted to hang himself using electric cable, but the beam over which he had tied the noose had broken, leaving Ahmed unconscious but still alive on the floor. Ahmed is rushed to hospital, and Anishka visits breaking down uncontrollably upon arrival.

A short time later Ahmed is convalescing in the back yard of his house with Anishka and their friends from the community choir helping them move in. All is forgiven between Ahmed and Anishka. Fisher and Josie arrive, and in the back yard Ahmed tells Fisher that its OK for him to exhibit the photograph that had caused him so much angst, as it represents part of who he is. We then fast forward a couple of months to the opening night of Fisher's photographic exhibition. Josie and Fisher have given birth to a new daughter and Ahmed and Anishka also have their new child in tow, as the choir burst into song singing The Talking Heads 'Road to Nowhere'.

'Hearts & Bones' is certainly a film that will make you think and contemplate the racial and cultural differences that we are experiencing in the world right now with fleeing refugees, and how two couples from completely opposite ends of the spectrum in just about every sense are thrust together, overcome adversity and ultimately live happier more fulfilled lives as a result. It is by no means an easy watch, as we are thrust into the everyday lives of two couples that forces us to ponder the passage of time over the circumstances for a course of action and the differing perspectives of two men. The acting from the four principle players is top notch with Hugo Weaving giving his role as the stoic and fractured protagonist his usual pathos and first timer Andrew Luri showing us that he is an acting force to be reckoned with. Director Lawrence has here crafted a complex film of deep sorrow, remorse, anguish and anxiety yet hope for a better future, and as the end credits roll we see a montage of real life photographs of refugees fleeing their own countries in the hope of a better life. Powerful and thought provoking stuff!

'Hearts & Bones' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-