Bordertown: The Complete Series

This absorbing 1995 miniseries made for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation presents a year in the life of Baringa, a migrant camp in Australia. British teen Louise (Christine Tremarco) narrates the comings and goings of the postwar community, with each of the 10 episodes profiling a different immigrant as sepia-toned flashbacks fill in their back stories. Louise fancies Italian merchant Joe (Joe Petruzzi), who is burdened with his simpleminded brother Nino (Mitchell Butel), although that doesn't stop Joe from finding the time to woo both acting administrator Bev (Linda Cropper), and Adrianna (Melita Jurisic), a Dutch woman who lives with her former professor, Pieter (Norman Kaye). Another Italian, Dante the barber (Petru Gheorghiu), eagerly welcomes his wife only to find that her ardor has cooled over the years, while Hungarian farmer Mihaly (Alex Menglet) forges an uneasy friendship with a young gypsy who reminds him of his estranged son. All take English lessons from Louise's widowed father Kenneth (Hugo Weaving), the camp cynic. Cate Blanchett appears in episodes six through eight, playing Bianca, an albino from Nino's past. Stiff-backed Cpl. Bates (Geoff Morrell) and Scottish housekeeper Maeve (Kim Hillas) also figure prominently. Before the series concludes, there are four deaths, four marriages, an abortion, and a fair amount of magical realism, all encompassed in a drama that is comparatively more explicit—in terms of language and sexuality—than most PBS fare. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)