Set in the midst of an Australian summer, Little Sparrows concerns three sisters: Nina,a widow with two young children; Anna, an aspiring actress unhappily married to a filmmaker; and Christine, a medical student who is yet to fully come to terms with her sexuality. When their mother Susan's breast cancer returns, the family is faced with choices and the reality of their last Christmas together. Simple and sincere, Little Sparrows celebrates life and the unconditional love of a mother.
'A mother of three grown daughters learns that her cancer has returned, so she gathers everyone together for one last Christmas at the family home in Perth; a woman is suddenly widowed when her husband suffers a heart attack, leaving her with four children to support on a rural property in south-east Queensland; a young mother, living a comfortable existence in inner-city Melbourne, is doubly devastated when she learns of her husband's infidelity shortly after her nine-year old son is diagnosed with leukaemia. These plot synopses for, respectively, 'Little Sparrows' (Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen, 2010), 'The Tree' (Julie Bertuccelli, 2010) and 'Matching Jack' (Nadia Tass, 2010) suggest all three films are maternal melodramas. Each film is distinctive, however, in its approach to subject matter that might otherwise be dismissed as sentimental or mawkish. With diverse production and funding bases ranging from micro-budget independent ('Little Sparrows') and art-house co-production ('The Tree') to mainstream studio distribution ('Matching Jack'), this trio of new Australian films tackles the universal themes of death, grief and parenthood. In their search for audiences at home and abroad, these films combine the specificity of their locations with the cross-cultural appeal of their stories.'
Source: Abstract.
'A mother of three grown daughters learns that her cancer has returned, so she gathers everyone together for one last Christmas at the family home in Perth; a woman is suddenly widowed when her husband suffers a heart attack, leaving her with four children to support on a rural property in south-east Queensland; a young mother, living a comfortable existence in inner-city Melbourne, is doubly devastated when she learns of her husband's infidelity shortly after her nine-year old son is diagnosed with leukaemia. These plot synopses for, respectively, 'Little Sparrows' (Yu-Hsiu Camille Chen, 2010), 'The Tree' (Julie Bertuccelli, 2010) and 'Matching Jack' (Nadia Tass, 2010) suggest all three films are maternal melodramas. Each film is distinctive, however, in its approach to subject matter that might otherwise be dismissed as sentimental or mawkish. With diverse production and funding bases ranging from micro-budget independent ('Little Sparrows') and art-house co-production ('The Tree') to mainstream studio distribution ('Matching Jack'), this trio of new Australian films tackles the universal themes of death, grief and parenthood. In their search for audiences at home and abroad, these films combine the specificity of their locations with the cross-cultural appeal of their stories.'
Source: Abstract.
