The Combination (film)
Encyclopedia
The Combination is a 2009 Australian drama film, directed by David Field
and written by George Basha. The film covers the relations between Lebanese Australian
s and Anglo Australians
in parts of Western Sydney
. Parts of the film focus on the 2005 Cronulla riots
in Australia
between Lebanese Australians and Anglo Australians.
Basha and Field met and began working on the screenplay in 2001. Principal photography
began in 2008, taking place in and around the Sydney
suburbs of Guildford
and Parramatta
. The film was released on 26 February 2009. It received generally positive reviews from critics. It also caused some controversy after two violent incidents caused the film to be temporarily pulled from some cinemas.
John Morkos returns home. He finds work as a cleaner at a boxing gym,. John also meets and begins a relationship with Sydney, an Anglo Australian
. John soon finds that his younger brother, Charlie, has been involved in fights between his Lebanese friends and the white students at school. Fearing that Charlie is going down the path he has been on, John tries to talk some sense into Charlie.
Charlie ignores John's warnings and with his friend Zeus start selling methamphetamine
s for Ibo, the local drug kingpin. Not long after that, another one of Charlie's friends, Tom, punches a stranger in the head, after playing and losing an arcade game
to him. The stranger's friend gets involved in the fight and later on Tom's friends join in. The stranger's friend holds Zeus in a headlock during the fight and while doing so Tom stabs him with a knife and ends up in jail. Meanwhile, John and Sydney's relationship blossoms. At school, tensions between the Lebanese and Anglo boys increase. The Anglos, led by Scott, gang-bash one of the Lebanese boys, breaking his jaw and nose. The rest of the Lebanese boys decide to take revenge on Scott but are persuaded by John not to do anything.
Meanwhile, the relationship between John and Sydney ends when Sydney's racist mother threaten's to kick her out of the house if she doesn't stop seeing John. The couple soon make up after realising they both made a mistake. John also finds Charlie's stash of drugs and flushes it down the toilet. At a nightclub, Zeus starts a fight with Scott, punches him in the head and ends up shooting and killing him. Zeus is arrested by the police. Unable to come up with the drug money for Ibo, a drive-by shooting
is carried out on the Morkos home by Ibo. John turns to the owner of the boxing gym for the money which he delivers to Ibo, but Charlie is murdered by Ibo with a shotgun
when walking home from school. John avenges Charlie's death by savagely beating Ibo, and in the process, nearly killing him.
and Parramatta
. Basha wrote the script while recovering from a broken leg he got while playing soccer. Basha met David Field in late 2001 after the director sold a second-hand car to a friend of Basha's. The two met for lunch and where Basha showed Field his script. Within two days, Field decided he would direct the film himself.
Field originally did not want Basha to star in the film, but Basha auditioned for the role of John Morkos and won the part. Clare Bowen, who was a student in an acting class Field previously taught, was called by Field to audition for the role of Sydney after he was unable to find the right actress for the part. The film also features a group of non-professional actors. For the roles of Charlie's high school mates, the producers place an ad in the Parramatta papers. Field says "it wasn't about using non-actors, it was about using actors who'd been waiting for the opportunity to act." Vaughn White, who plays Scott, was found while mowing lawns for community service
.
The film was made on a budget and without any government funding. After the finance was raised the film began production in early 2008. The film was shot in 21 days following a two week rehearsal period. It was shot on a Red One digital film camera in and around Parramatta and Guildford. Influenced by the visual style of films in the Revisionist Western
genre, the film makes use of the widescreen format, low angles and dramatic lighting to "enhance [the] hero's standing among those less honourable" and allow "dynamic compositions of landscape and character." It was edited in Final Cut Pro
At Gruchy Digital Video in Darlinghurst before being graded
in the digital intermediate
process.
and Margaret Pomeranz
gave the film 4 and 4½ out of 5 stars, respectively. Stratton said "the story it tells is so moving and so honest". Time Off
s Adam Brunes said that it was "refreshing to see a homegrown film that doesn't resort to cultural stereotypes, and a film about race that doesn't preach." ABC Radio National
's Jason Di Rosso said that the film had "some clunky, overwritten dialogue and poor pacing" but that "as the plot crescendos […] The Combination transcends its flaws." Marc Fennell
reviewing for Triple J
gave the film two out of five stars, praising the ambition of the film, but criticizing several aspects including the love story, the acting by the non-professional cast and Bowen, Labib Jammal's music and the characterisation of Sydney's parents. The acting by the cast of young actors received praise, as did Toby Oliver's cinematography.
The film was temporarily pulled from Greater Union
cinemas in New South Wales after two violent incidents in the film's opening week. In the first incident on 26 February 2009, a security guard was hit in the head and hospitalised after asking a patron to put out his cigarette. In the second incident on 28 February, a staff member was injured in a fight that broke out after patrons asked other patrons to be quiet towards the end of the film. The film was reopened at the cinemas on 4 March 2009 following the addition of extra security measures.
David Field (actor)
David Field is an Australian actor who has appeared on television and in films. Some of the films he appeared in include Chopper, Two Hands and Gettin' Square. His most notable roles are as Keithy in Chopper and as Acko in Two Hands...
and written by George Basha. The film covers the relations between Lebanese Australian
Lebanese Australian
A Lebanese Australian is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Lebanese descent. The community is multi-religious, and includes a Christian, mostly Maronite Catholic, majority, as well as a large Muslim minority of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, and various other Christian and...
s and Anglo Australians
Anglo-Celtic Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australian are citizens of Australia with British and/or Irish ancestral origins.-Demography:From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers were British or Irish...
in parts of Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney is a term used to describe the western region of the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia. The University of Western Sydney defines Greater Western Sydney as comprising 14 local government areas...
. Parts of the film focus on the 2005 Cronulla riots
2005 Cronulla riots
The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of sectarian clashes and mob violence originating in Cronulla, New South Wales and spreading, over the next few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
between Lebanese Australians and Anglo Australians.
Basha and Field met and began working on the screenplay in 2001. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in 2008, taking place in and around the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburbs of Guildford
Guildford, New South Wales
Guildford is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Guildford is located 25 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of the City of Holroyd and the City of Parramatta...
and Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
. The film was released on 26 February 2009. It received generally positive reviews from critics. It also caused some controversy after two violent incidents caused the film to be temporarily pulled from some cinemas.
Plot
After serving time in gaol, Lebanese AustralianLebanese Australian
A Lebanese Australian is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Lebanese descent. The community is multi-religious, and includes a Christian, mostly Maronite Catholic, majority, as well as a large Muslim minority of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, and various other Christian and...
John Morkos returns home. He finds work as a cleaner at a boxing gym,. John also meets and begins a relationship with Sydney, an Anglo Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australian are citizens of Australia with British and/or Irish ancestral origins.-Demography:From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers were British or Irish...
. John soon finds that his younger brother, Charlie, has been involved in fights between his Lebanese friends and the white students at school. Fearing that Charlie is going down the path he has been on, John tries to talk some sense into Charlie.
Charlie ignores John's warnings and with his friend Zeus start selling methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
s for Ibo, the local drug kingpin. Not long after that, another one of Charlie's friends, Tom, punches a stranger in the head, after playing and losing an arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
to him. The stranger's friend gets involved in the fight and later on Tom's friends join in. The stranger's friend holds Zeus in a headlock during the fight and while doing so Tom stabs him with a knife and ends up in jail. Meanwhile, John and Sydney's relationship blossoms. At school, tensions between the Lebanese and Anglo boys increase. The Anglos, led by Scott, gang-bash one of the Lebanese boys, breaking his jaw and nose. The rest of the Lebanese boys decide to take revenge on Scott but are persuaded by John not to do anything.
Meanwhile, the relationship between John and Sydney ends when Sydney's racist mother threaten's to kick her out of the house if she doesn't stop seeing John. The couple soon make up after realising they both made a mistake. John also finds Charlie's stash of drugs and flushes it down the toilet. At a nightclub, Zeus starts a fight with Scott, punches him in the head and ends up shooting and killing him. Zeus is arrested by the police. Unable to come up with the drug money for Ibo, a drive-by shooting
Drive-by shooting
A drive-by shooting is a form of hit-and-run tactic, a personal attack carried out by an individual or individuals from a moving or momentarily stopped vehicle without use of headlights to avoid being noticed. It often results in bystanders being shot instead of, or as well as, the intended target...
is carried out on the Morkos home by Ibo. John turns to the owner of the boxing gym for the money which he delivers to Ibo, but Charlie is murdered by Ibo with a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
when walking home from school. John avenges Charlie's death by savagely beating Ibo, and in the process, nearly killing him.
Cast
- George Basha as John, a Lebanese Australian man just out of jail
- Firass DiraniFirass DiraniFirass Dirani is an Australian actor known for his roles of Nick Russell, the Red Mystic Ranger on Power Rangers Mystic Force, Charlie on the 2009 Australian film The Combination, and as John Ibrahim on the 2010 series Underbelly: The Golden Mile....
as Charlie, John's younger brother - Doris YounaneDoris YounaneDoris Younane is an Australian stage and screen actress notable for her role in McLeod's Daughters where she plays Moira Doyle.-Career:...
as Mary, John and Charlie's mother - Clare Bowen as Sydney, John's girlfriend
- Michael Denkha as Ibo, a drug dealer
- Vaughn White as Scott, the leader of the Anglo boys
- Katrina Risteska as Anna, Scott's girlfriend and Charlie's love interest
- Ali Haider as Zeus, one of Charlie's friends
- Rasheed Dehan as Tom, one of Charlie's friends
- Guang Li as Nipper, one of Charlie's friends
Production
The film is based partly on writer George Basha's life experiences of growing up in the suburbs of GuildfordGuildford, New South Wales
Guildford is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Guildford is located 25 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of the City of Holroyd and the City of Parramatta...
and Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
. Basha wrote the script while recovering from a broken leg he got while playing soccer. Basha met David Field in late 2001 after the director sold a second-hand car to a friend of Basha's. The two met for lunch and where Basha showed Field his script. Within two days, Field decided he would direct the film himself.
Field originally did not want Basha to star in the film, but Basha auditioned for the role of John Morkos and won the part. Clare Bowen, who was a student in an acting class Field previously taught, was called by Field to audition for the role of Sydney after he was unable to find the right actress for the part. The film also features a group of non-professional actors. For the roles of Charlie's high school mates, the producers place an ad in the Parramatta papers. Field says "it wasn't about using non-actors, it was about using actors who'd been waiting for the opportunity to act." Vaughn White, who plays Scott, was found while mowing lawns for community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
.
The film was made on a budget and without any government funding. After the finance was raised the film began production in early 2008. The film was shot in 21 days following a two week rehearsal period. It was shot on a Red One digital film camera in and around Parramatta and Guildford. Influenced by the visual style of films in the Revisionist Western
Revisionist Western
The Revisionist Western, Modern Western or Anti-Western traces to the mid 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie....
genre, the film makes use of the widescreen format, low angles and dramatic lighting to "enhance [the] hero's standing among those less honourable" and allow "dynamic compositions of landscape and character." It was edited in Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
At Gruchy Digital Video in Darlinghurst before being graded
Color grading
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...
in the digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
process.
Reception
The film generally received positive reviews upon its release. At the Movies critics David StrattonDavid Stratton
David James Stratton is an English- Australian film critic and television personality.-Life and career:Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England in 1939, Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly...
and Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz AM is an Australian film critic and television personality.-Early life:Pomeranz was born in 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney, and was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon, the then newly opened Macquarie University, and the Playwright's Studio at...
gave the film 4 and 4½ out of 5 stars, respectively. Stratton said "the story it tells is so moving and so honest". Time Off
Time Off
Time Off is a free weekly tabloid-sized music magazine that is released in Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Time Off is the oldest free music/entertainment weekly in Australia. Time Off began on campus at the University of Queensland, and was originally printed on A4 glossy stock. In the late 70s, Time...
s Adam Brunes said that it was "refreshing to see a homegrown film that doesn't resort to cultural stereotypes, and a film about race that doesn't preach." ABC Radio National
Radio National
ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
's Jason Di Rosso said that the film had "some clunky, overwritten dialogue and poor pacing" but that "as the plot crescendos […] The Combination transcends its flaws." Marc Fennell
Marc Fennell
- Film reviewing :In 2002, Fennell was a winner of the first AFI Young Film Critics Competition. He then became the film critic and reporter for Sydney radio station FBi Radio from 2003-2006....
reviewing for Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
gave the film two out of five stars, praising the ambition of the film, but criticizing several aspects including the love story, the acting by the non-professional cast and Bowen, Labib Jammal's music and the characterisation of Sydney's parents. The acting by the cast of young actors received praise, as did Toby Oliver's cinematography.
The film was temporarily pulled from Greater Union
Greater Union
Greater Union, Birch Carroll and Coyle, Event Cinemas, Skycity Cinemas and Damodar Village Cinemas together form a chain of cinema multiplexes across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji...
cinemas in New South Wales after two violent incidents in the film's opening week. In the first incident on 26 February 2009, a security guard was hit in the head and hospitalised after asking a patron to put out his cigarette. In the second incident on 28 February, a staff member was injured in a fight that broke out after patrons asked other patrons to be quiet towards the end of the film. The film was reopened at the cinemas on 4 March 2009 following the addition of extra security measures.