'The story revolves around Tom Paine Shane Porteous, a complex intelligent man in his mid-thirties. The film opens with a classroom confrontation between Tom and his students as he struggles and fails to keep his grip. Those who could help him also fail to reach out to him or to meet his need.
'Admitted to a psychiatric hospital, Tom forms a tender, sometimes violent relationship with another young patient, Penny Downy. Together they learn how to become part of society again.'
Source:
Anne Whitehead, 'Tasmanian Film Corporation', Metro Magazine 56 (Winter 1981): pp.48-49.
According to 'Ian Horner's Movie Guide' in the Australian Women's Weekly, this was one of 'three (so far) socially conscious telemovies made by the Tasmanian Film Corporation and the Nine Network': the others were Do I Have to Kill My Child? and Slippery Slide.
Source:
'Ian Horner's Movie Guide', Australian Women's Weekly, 24 September 1980, p.228.
Writing Disability in Australia
| Type of disability | Schizophrenia. |
| Type of character | Primary. |
| Point of view | Third person. |
