1. Plot

2. Development

3. Production

4. Reception

5. References

6. External links

Plot

Mother Fish follows the story of a middle-aged Vietnamese woman (Hyen Nguyen) working in a suburban sweatshop. In the evening when the workers have left, she is transported back to the night she and her sister (Sheena Pham) fled her homeland, led by an uncle promising to reunite them with their father.

Through the setting of the sweatshop, the woman remembers the journey. The boat is unprepared for the ocean crossing, as are they. Food and water supplies are low, their engine breaks, and the threat of rape and death at the hands of South-sea pirates is real. Through the woman's memory the audience relives the experience of crossing the ocean in search of a better life.^[4]

Development

Do has stated that the development of the film was highly personal, and its intention was for the audience to empathise with the plight of boat people.^[7] The film communicates this message by ending with the statistic that between 1975 and 1996 over 1,500,000 people fled Vietnam. Of those, only 900,000 made land meaning that 600,000 were lost at sea. Of the survivors, approximately 137,000 came to Australia.^[8]

Production

A defining feature of Mother Fish is that it was shot in a similar style to Lars von Trier's Dogville, by setting all the action entirely within the sweatshop.^[6][9]

Do chose to work with first-time actors who had all either been refugees or descendants of refugees.^[10] Hieu Phan, who plays the woman's Uncle, was a refugee who made the crossing 30 years ago, and has spoken of weeping in rehearsals as the memory of his own boat journey came back to him.^[11] While shooting, the cast were kept on a strict monitored diet to lose weight in a similar manner to refugees who had made the crossing.^[12]

Reception

On 19 April 2010, Mother Fish had its theatrical premiere at Riverside Theatres Parramatta,^[15] coinciding with the 35th anniversary of Vietnamese settlement in Australia. The Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services paid tribute to the premiere.^[16]

Reviewers generally debated Khao Do's daring approach of creating the boat trip out of the space of the sweatshop, however performances were generally critically praised for their 'honesty', usually driven by the actors own backgrounds.^[17]

References

External links

• {{Official website|http://www.motherfish.com.au/}}
• {{IMDb title|1661067}}

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