Bassendream | Luna Leederville | Dir: Tim Barretto | ★ ★ ★ ★ 

The small suburb of Bassendean wakes up on a hot summer morning to the sound of birds and sprinklers. Writer/director Tim Barretto introduces the audience to the large cast of locals as their Sunday morning begins on the last day of the school holidays, and brings us back to sometime in the mid-nineties.

Bassendean is very much in Barretto’s blood, as he grew up there, as did his mother and his grandfather. Wanting to capture the whole suburb in his nostalgic film that he has been working on since 2017, he put out a call on Facebook for people from Bassendean to share their stories.

Barretto had fond memories of his cousin who had Down’s syndrome and who snuck out of the house one morning and set off the siren at the local football oval, and this is what starts the film. As the day unfolds, the audience is taken down memory lane by the antics of the kids who are mostly Bassendean locals.

By the time the midday sun beats down on the stiflingly hot day it is evident that, while the kids are carefree as they run and cycle around the neighbourhood, it is the adults who are having more drama in their lives.

As the shadows lengthen on Leighton Beach, the audience is left with memories of a bygone era which are brought to life by a marvellous soundtrack using songs from Paul Kelly, Jebadiah, The Triffids and Australian Crawl, intermixed with the sounds of lawnmowers, fans and constantly blaring radios.

Meet the filmmakers of this independent micro-budget WA film – writer/director and co-producer Tim Baretto, co-producer Melanie Filler and executive producer Ian Hale – at Movies With Mark on Sunday 28 August at 6.30pm at Luna Leederville. Tickets are on sale now.

Lezly Herbert

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