HOME SONG STORIES - North Carolina Premiere!
Tony Ayres
Fortissimo Films
Drama
Australia, 2007, 103 min.

Sponsored by the Australian Embassy, Washington DC

Sun., Aug. 10, 4 PM, at the Drama Workshop, Salem Fine Arts Center

Synopsis from the Filmmaker:

It is 1964. Rose Hong, a beautiful and glamorous Hong Kong nightclub singer, meets an Australian sailor and migrates with him to the state of Victoria along with her two children, Tom and May. Rose leaves Bill soon after she gets her Australian citizenship and moves to Sydney, where she spends the next seven years working in Chinese restaurants, going from one disastrous relationship to another. Based on a true story, this epic tale of mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, unrequited love, betrayal and hidden secrets that spans continents and decades.

This film is narrated by the adult Tom, who is seeking peace by recounting memories of a tumultuous childhood with his mother in this visually captivating story. The character Rose (played by Joan Chen) is highly glamorous, but her beauty masks a self-inflicted prison from which she desperately wants to escape. Her dramatic journey raises questions of self-identity and self-worth about herself and, ultimately, her children. -AP/SC