(SIRENS WAIL)
(MARCHING FOOTSTEPS, INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
(RAIN FALLS)
(PENSIVE CELLO MUSIC)
(GULLS SCREECH)
(METAL CLANKS SOFTLY)
(WIND BLOWS)
(CAR ENGINE RUMBLES)
Hey! (LAUGHS)
GIRL IN LIVERPUDLIAN ACCENT: Once upon a time, there was a map
and everyone had their own little corner and stayed in it.
Back then, Baringa was an army camp,
a place where you got taught how to march and play reveille
and take pot shots at each other.
Then after we shot at everyone we could think of,
we let in a straggly bunch of leftovers who talked funny.
This is their story.
It's about how one tiny, dusty dot on the great map
grew into Bordertown.
The place where lives crisscrossed and collided
and bled into one another.
A place of mayhem and muddle
and a place, once in a blue moon, of miracles.
GIRL: They're here! They're here!
(WHISTLES) Last one out's a rotten egg!
Seen Joe? Mmm-mm.
Come here.
What? Let me look at you.
WOMAN: Welcome to Baringa.
If you'd just like to make your way over there.
Hello.
(SPEAKS INAUDIBLY)
Everybody!
Excuse me, can I have your attention, please?
Look, I know how hot and tired you all must be
so let's go over here into the recreation hall
and we'll have some refreshments.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN) MAN: Ahh!
(LAUGHTER AND CHATTER)
(CLEARS THROAT)
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Baringa.
Australia is a country of sweeping plains,
mountain ranges, drought.
She's wide, she's brown, she's bloody beauteous.
(KNOCKS ON DOOR)
Oh, Louisa, come in, come in, come on.
Hey, don't touch this one.
That's a very special peperoncino. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
It looks like a little... Hey!
Enough. You're too young for this joke.
(PEOPLE CHAT IN ITALIAN AND ENGLISH)
Have you never thought about going for someone a bit younger?
Now you say -- look there.
There's the animal...
..and the angel.
She said to me it's like kissing the arse on a cat.
But I'm so ugly I have to shoot myself.
But how about someone, say, a lot younger?
Oh, Louisa.
Smile for me.
Look -- lipstick on the tooth.
(LAUGHS)
Come on.
LOUISE: Joe was my numero uno.
Never thinking of himself, not Joe.
Buongiorno, signora!
LOUISE: Do unto others, that was his motto.
And Joe did unto others again and again and again.
Sprechen sie Deutsch?
Huh? Speak English?
Would you like to sign this petition for the new toilets?
The toilets are very bad.
MAN: A cigar?
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Very good. One penny.
How is it your petitions are always longer than my new arrivals list?
The human bowel can arouse intense passions, Miss Stafford.
Remind me to meet one some dark night.
(LAUGHS) Hey, Administrator!
Now, everything is ridgy-didgy.
If I find you've rifled the storeroom...
No, no, no, I make very good deal with general store in town.
You check with the papers, eh?
As if one wasn't enough.
This says there's another Della Vergine on board.
Is...is woman?
My wife? Doesn't say.
Joe, are you alright?
Er...
Louisa, you...take over here.
I...I have to look for a relative, I...
Do him good to have some company. He's been so Ionely.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
I hate mysteries, Stafford.
They're checked at port, Customs and the station.
Why aren't they checked with you? I don't know, sir.
Maybe somebody make a mistake.
Is OK, no prob...
Nino!
Sorpreso! (LAUGHS)
Hey, Giusepp!
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Well, he's not your missus anyway.
(BOTH SPEAK ITALIAN)
Who is he -- bloody Pinocchio?
(JOE YELLS IN ITALIAN)
You are a fat wog cow!
(SLAMS DOOR)
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Hey, you!
(SPEAKS HUNGARIAN)
Get away from my tomatoes!
Tomatoes are sensitive!
There aren't no tomatoes, mate. The buggers won't grow in there!
They must be left in peace, you understand me?!
Giusepp! Let him go!
Grazie, signora.
If you insist.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
"My darling Giuseppe, how your mama longs for you."
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
"When I look at our little Nino, bright-eyed but empty.
"I see only your face and feel the sweat of your strong heart muscles
"as they labour only for us.
"So I have sent him to you.
"He has grown so big
"and he talks always of your face beside his cradle.
"I know you will cherish him,
"and I beg you remember always
"the words of your great-great-grandmama
"who held you in her arms as Jesus took her sainted spirit..."
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
"To love the loveable is easy. To love the rest is holy.
"Be holy, my darling Giuseppe. PS -- the visions continue."
Hey, Giusepp. (LAUGHS)
Signora, thank you very much.
STAFFORD: Be holy, Giuseppe.
WOMAN: Giuseppe.
Giuseppe. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Mama!
No. YOU listen!
They send him home on the first boat!
They put him on, they send him back to you, Mama,
you who love him so much!
My little crazy brother coming home.
(SINGS) ♪ My little crazy brother coming home, home
♪ The little crazy brother coming ho... ♪
(NINO SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Nothing, I'm not hungry, Nino.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Nino, if you're gonna stay here, you've gotta learn to speak English.
Is very simple.
I learn perfect in one afternoon.
Hey, Giusepp. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
(LAUGHS) Giusepp Casanova, eh?
Jiggy, jiggy, jiggy! No more, Nino.
Giuseppe. Ahhh!
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
English, Nino! English!
(METAL CLANKS LOUDLY)
NINO: Giuseppe, if you could know, in my heart I speak Inglese,
I speak Latin and ancient Greek.
I speak in tongues and the language of your dreams and your childhood.
But which will unlock your heart?
Ahh! (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Get down. Stupido!
You want everybody to think you imbecile?!
It's all sort of eerie, don't you reckon, Dante?
All that dust and that quiet.
Arrivals night. Huh?
Arrivals night.
You remember, no?
When we come to Baringa for many week --
boat and train and bus, rockabye.
And here, finalmente, all is still, but inside the head...
You keep rocking for weeks. Si.
And the reason of rocking is the reason of memory.
Yeah.
All the picture come drifting into head -- and another and another.
In Italiano, fotografia vecchia.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
A woman's white neck.
1,000 fotografia vecchia, I think here,
under layer and layer of dust,
Giusepp. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Shut up, Nino. Go to sleep.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN) I don't care.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
JOE: English, Nino.
(DOGS BARK DISTANTLY)
(GRUNTS)
(GRUNTS LOUDLY)
Why have you brought me here, Anna?
The toilets are appalling.
Close.
We're in a rowboat on the canal by Huidenstraat.
The boat is bobbing, rocking gently.
And we can hear the water lapping and the foghorn from the harbour,
the lies of the hawkers from the flower market --
"Tulips, fresh this morning," when we know they are three days old.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Pieter.
To this fractious and constipated old man,
you are all that makes this infernal place bearable.
MAN: Signora. Wait.
Ciao.
Learn English. Shh.
(WHISPERS IN ITALIAN)
What was that?
Nothing. A moth.
MAN: Right.
"At the shops".
I would like to buy a pair of...
(DISTINCTLY) A pair of...
Feet? Nah.
Who's a silly, hmm? I already have a pair of feet, don't I?
Unless I'm Humpty Dumpty.
To put on my pair of feet, I would like to buy a pair of...what?
Learn. Learn English, please.
Oh! I beg your pardon. I must have slipped into Swahili again.
Er, Nino. Yes?
I see.
Nino...
..imbecile.
That's a refreshingly frank admission.
Anyone else?
Right.
STAFFORD : It's easily solved -- get a job and go.
There's the Snowy, the abattoir,
pickle factory, Chrysler factory, cannery.
But, signora, in my spirit, I have the will, you know this.
But I have weak, um...weak...
How you say in English -- weak...?
Spine? Stomach? Character? All of the above?
Oh-ho, signora, that...
Why you no give job to Nino?
You don't want them to think back home that you're making good, do you?
Because then Mama and the bambinos and, for all you know,
half of sodding Calabria might hop on the next boat
and then where would you be?
Fateful. Or worse.
Maybe it's no worse but...
You signed a contract, my friend. You can't put it off forever.
(LAUGHS) And if you're thinking of flogging my pen, forget it.
What? Oh! (LAUGHS)
Sorry.
Signora, I tell you something, when I think of you...
Which, naturally, is often.
..I think only one word.
"Smart'.
Hey, Giuseppe. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Imbecile. Why do you wait for invitation? Take off the skin.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Listen, tonight, after the barbecue,
I knock up a Dutch woman and knock off Dutch woman.
Now, you no give me trouble, understand? Capisce?
(ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS)
Hey, professore.
Two shilling.
We've only got one and six between us.
She eats like a sparrow. LOUISE: Dad!
Very well. Squander your inheritance. See if I care.
Thank you.
JOE: Nino! Turn, turn.
Excuse me, may I dance?
Of course. Thank you.
LOUISE: I knew that look.
That was his best "do unto others" look.
(LAUGHS)
You're not very subtle, Giuseppe.
You use a big word, signora.
Don't worry. I doubt you'll have much use for that one.
So, what are you translating now, Professor?
The story of Lucifer who fell from Paradise into the fiery pit.
STAFFORD: Oh.
No! No!
You worthless piece of Mediterranean piss!
Do you think I'm stupid? I cut off your slimy laughing snout.
What's the matter with you, huh? You think I won't catch?
Stupid little boy!
Stupido. You crazy fucking Polack bugger.
(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE) What's the matter with you?
I'm not scared of you!
(SPEAKS ITALIAN) (YELLS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
You bit of piss.
WOMAN: No! Come on and fight! Come on!
MAN: Stop and fight! (YELLING AND JEERING)
Come on, come on.
(NINO YELLS IN ITALIAN)
(SPLASH !) (LAUGHTER)
What's your policy on refunds?
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Everything you touch is ruin. Why you come here?
I no want you. I no want you before. I no want you now.
10,000 mile I travel to get away, and still they send you to me.
You ruin my life!
I'm not your mama!
Giuseppe, silenzio. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
So here's the refund.
Pay attention to your wife. Maybe she not get so Ionely.
I'm sorry, signora.
(LAUGHS)
Whoa-ho!
Stupido! (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Attacks, men!
Corporal, alert the guards. It's the Japs!
Are you alright, Colonel?
Another withdrawal, Corporal. Another withdrawal.
No, sir.
We're holding the line.
(LAUGHS)
Nino, what are you doing?
Nino!
Salud, signora, huh?
Salud!
Nino, where's Joe? Salud!
Nino, where's your brother?
LOUISE: Joe! Come out, come out wherever you are!
Joe!
It's Nino!
What he do now?.
He says he's had a vision of someone called Saint Columbino di Unga.
Dio santo!
Well, I kind of almost believed him.
You believe him, huh?
Let me tell you something...
..he only have visions when he in trouble.
I don't think Bev's too happy.
Nino! Nino, please.
Just calm down and tell me what happened from the beginning.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
He say Saint Columbino did come to him.
Saint Columbino is patron saint of his village.
Columbino save Nino's life.
You must imagine you are a little boy, six or seven years old.
The boys from his village used little Nino in their games.
"Run and hide, little boy, the banditos will get you!"
Nino ran, searching, searching for his brother Giuseppe.
But he's caught and suddenly all is changed.
Now the boys are good monks.
"Look," they say, "this worthy traveller
"has been robbed and left for dead.
"We must call our Brother Columbino."
And Columbino comes.
"Be at peace," he says. "I am kind to all living things."
And he lay his stigmataed hands on the boy
and he prays to the Lord Jesus.
And he weeps.
And when he weeps, his tears fall on the boy's wounds.
And miracolo -- they heal.
And Nino gives thanks to Jesus for the tears of Saint Columbino.
Move!
Oh, very impressive.
Alright, everyone, go back to bed.
Do you wanna show me the paperwork for this stuff,
or are you gonna tell me it fell off the back of a truck?
I provide service for people.
You know, if I tell the Colonel about this,
you'll be out of here so fast, even your head would spin.
If you tell the Colonel, who's gonna take care of Nino?
Signora, all the town at my door.
You can forget that Latin charm with me. It won't wash.
Ah, I never try this with you, signora.
Never.
Come on.
If I can trust you, I no have to do it
but I cannot trust you, so I do it.
Today I got important meeting
and you, my friend, are gonna be a good boy.
I tie you up and you stay.
Come here! (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Now you try and make trouble.
Giuseppe.
Hey, Giuseppe!
(COUGHS)
It's like there's no-one else in the world.
I organised this for you.
I talked to the wind, and look! (LAUGHS)
There is no-one else. But there is.
Your husband? We're not married, technically.
He never found the courage to ask.
But I owe him more than if I'd been with him five lifetimes.
And sometime it feel that long for you, huh?
Me too.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
But for today...
..we leave your husband in the library with the book.
He is happy like that.
Just once?
That I can live with.
So...
..until the boss come back...
..the wind blow outside...
..for one afternoon...
..there is nobody else.
There is...
..no-one else.
I was going to the river and I just found him.
He could have been here for hours.
Joe couldn't have done this, could he?
Providing a service, were we?
What sort of service is this exactly?
The carnival's over, my friend.
You signed a two-year contract
saying you'd work where when and how the department specified.
Well, I specify with my little eye something beginning with "J'!
Tinkling streams, snow-topped hills,
enough frost to glue your hyperactive nuts to the dunny rim.
(WEAKLY) Jindabyne? Lovely place.
You can flog your lighter fluid
or your grubby French letters in scenic splendour.
Or Timbuk-bloody-tu, for all I care.
Dismissed.
(MUTTERS IN ITALIAN)
Joe! Joe!
Did you have to be so cruel to him?
Madonna sancto!
An evening passagata, Anna.
Lovely word 'passagata'.
A shame we don't have one quite so delicious.
Let's not. Let's stay in.
Perhaps you think if it's not my books or my bowels, I don't notice,
but it occurs to me lately that other men may find you attractive.
I don't like to think you feel tied to me, Anna.
Now, after all, is not 1943.
I would find it humiliating.
Who'd look after you if I wasn't here?
Taking a last look at scenic Baringa?
It look like shit and I feel like shit.
There's very good views at Jindabyne.
But no women.
I, er...
I've made a few amendments to your work contract.
You'll have to initial the changes.
It's not all bad, you know.
You're getting rid of Nino.
The colonel's decided he's too much of a handful.
He'll be back on the boat to Bari within a week.
You're supposed to be pleased.
It's like I have the spear in my heart.
You know, it make me sick when everybody love you so much.
Yeah, it must be hell.
"Yeah, Giuse, you hard worker, you responsible, you head of family."
10,000 miles I travel and still I got hands of women around my balls.
Most nights by all accounts.
Oh, cheap shot.
Joe!
Joe.
If I tell you something I not tell to nobody before,
I can trust you?
You no like other women. With you is different.
With you, I not try to...
Oh, you understand.
Signora, I'm not very nice person.
Didn't know that was a secret.
You know the story how I saved the life to Nino.
Is a big lie.
See, for us, Nino is a toy, is something we play with.
(NINO GRUNTS) (BO YS LAUGH)
In the game, we wrap rosary tight on his neck.
And I'm pulling tighter and tighter.
And I'm thinking, you know, "Is better for me, better for Mama,
"better for everybody if I just..."
Understand?
A convenient accidental death? Yeah.
I think is good idea.
But then Mama come to call us in for dinner...
..and she see me, and then begin the lie.
WOMAN: Giuseppe!
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
Giusepp!
Giuseppe.
JOE: She kissed my hand, She said, "Thank you."
And she turned to Nino and she said,
"Look, you see what your brother do for you? He save your life."
But she know I was not trying to save.
She know I was tyring to kill.
But Nino believed the lie. He believe I save his life.
But in the head, he is like a little boy.
He don't know what it mean to die.
You were both little boys.
You're smart, signora.
Smart.
Very smart.
(GROANS)
Giusepp! (MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
Giusepp!
(YELLS) Nino. Shh. Shh.
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
Nino, quiet. Quiet, quiet.
Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
Quiet, Nino. Shhh.
Shhh.
(MURMURS IN ITALIAN)
Ohh!
Mud, mud everywhere!
Every bloody shitty place.
(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
My baby tomatoes have come!
(LAUGHS) But...
It's a miracolo!
Nino last night dreams of Saint Columbino
and where his tears fall now is miracolo!
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
(NINO LAUGHS)
(MEN SPEAK ITALIAN)
Hey, careful.
I just thought maybe somebody make a joke.
So the Hungarian put the cow shit on them and they grow?.
Overnight? (SCOFFS)
Miracolo. Si.
Miracolo!
LOUISE: The trouble was there weren't no miracle
that was going to stop them sending Joe away.
(JAUNTY ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS)
Come here.
Louisa.
(LAUGHS)
Hey, big brother, we make the best Napoletana in Southern Hemisphere.
(MUTTERS) Be kind, huh?
Probably think it's the Last Supper.
Dante, it's the last supper for the both of us.
NINO: Hey, Giuseppe.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN AND LAUGHS)
(SINGS IN ITALIAN)
(WOMEN SING IN ITALIAN)
Giuseppe! Hey, Giuseppe. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
With you to taste, the sauce will be good again.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN) Very good.
ADRIANNA: No. No, no, Nino. PIETER: No, no, I can't.
The tomatoes give him hives. No, I do not want. I do not want.
Please, now go. Go. Sit. Go away.
(THUD, MUSIC STOPS)
PIETER: You fool, look what you've done. Go!
Have we met?
Maybe one time.
In the past.
That's it.
But, you know, there always was someone else.
Yep.
When? When she die? It says it there.
5:34am, Saturday the fifth.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
You fat cow.
Why you do this to me?!
She's incredible.
I mean, JUST when I begin to be free,
she send Nino to me and then she die.
And now I got him forever.
I mean, no matter where I go, what I do, Nino's gonna be there!
Joe!
Frate Nino.
(SPEAKS ITALIAN)
(WAILS)
Nino.
Nino, don't be too sad. She hate you anyway.
(SOBS)
For heaven's sake. Corporal, pour us a brandy, will you?
Yeah. Right.
Um...
I sign the changes.
Can you do one for Nino too? He can't go home no more.
Giuseppe, Nino must go away to build the Snowy scheme.
Addio, Mama.
(MUTTERS IN ITALIAN)
(DOGS BARK)
(INDISTINCT YELLING)
Burn them down.
(LAUGHS) Why didn't I think of that?
MAN: Help find water!
Let it burn! For heavens' sake, let it burn!
You fools, let it burn! Let it burn!
Men!
Incoming! Left flank, follow me!
LOUISE: Dead hero he was, the Colonel. Him and Johnnie Walker.
Thought it was the fall of Singapore all over again.
Some say it's only the fools among us,
those without sense or memory who see the face of the future.
We'll know soon enough.
But for now...
..my own small and final contribution to that future.
Do you...
..Adrianna.
..Adrianna and you, Pieter,
promise to love one another, forsaking all others,
as long as you both shall live?
I do.
(CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)
Signora, I want to say to you...
Nino!
..I want to say thank you for them letting me stay.
It's nothing to do with me.
The Colonel never initialled the changes...
I understand...
Still, you know, before, I say to you
many things I never said to nobody and...
..now I stay longer, you are special.
It's just as well I'm not like other women,
otherwise I'd swear blind you were trying to, er, "knock me up".
Off.
Oop! Oh!
Sorry, too much fizz.
There's a lot of it about.
(CHEERING)
LOUISE: Dante gave up on his map.
He said the boundaries kept shifting
from the pressure of a million pairs of feet
crossing over to another country,
and a million hearts forsaking all others
or being forsook.
Bit by bit, the map wore away
until it was one more old Italian photograph,
an ancient answerjust glimpsed
beneath a younger, dustier question.
NINO: Columbino?
Giuseppe?
Giuseppe... Hey, hey. (SPEAKS ITALIAN)
I'm not cry, stupido. I try to make pepperoni grow.
Oh. (LAUGHS)
Wh...why you cry?
I give to you this, huh? Si.
Allora.
I...I give...
I give you. What?
What do you give me, Nino?
Huh?