Fish are friends, not food, in Tim Winton’s Blueback. The 1997 novel pops up on many an Aussie school’s curriculum, a quick read teaching young grommets the magic and importance of our fragile ocean life.
On January 1 2023, Blueback washes onto the shores of Australian cinemas. The film adaptation stars Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell, and Eric Bana as some of the grown-ups drawn into a young girl’s life-changing relationship with a majestic wild blue groper.
There’s plenty of movies about kids and their dogs, or kids and their muscly Austrian robotmen, but amateur diver Abby’s friendship with an enormous, threatened fish as she’s learning to navigate the reefs feels special. “We come from water, we belong to it”, she narrates over the trailer’s deep blue opening images.
Their connection is basically silent, a powerful mutual understanding that’s challenged by poachers and avaricious developers. Wasikowska will play a wistful adult version of the Abby, with newcomers Ariel Donoghue and Ilsa Fogg portraying the character’s early encounters with the sea.
Wasikowska spoke about the wondrous production of the movie in an interview with us in March, getting Stephen A Russell hyped for a coming-of-age story with an environmental focus. “It’s such a gorgeous film and a bit of a love story for the ocean”, she said. “It has particular significance in terms of everything that’s happening with the climate, and hopefully it’s a call to arms to protect our oceans.”
A refreshing and innately Aussie way to start off your new year, Blueback is best seen after a big day out at the beach…just not after a meal of fish and chips. Re-read the first sentence of this article, goddamnit!!
