Spit – Screen Australia. Exclusively in cinemas 6 March, 2025.
Previewed by Frank McKone
February 23
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
Writers: Christopher Nyst
Producer: Greg Duffy Trish Lake Felicity Mcvay David Wenham
Dir. of Photography: Garry Phillips
Editor: Nick Meyers
Production Designer: Nicholas McCallum
Production Completion: 2024
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Production Company: Tracking Films Pty Ltd
Cast:
David Wenham Helen Thomson David Field David Roberts
Gary Sweet Arlo Green Pallavi Sharda Ayik Daniel Chut Deng
Sam and Teagan Rybka Sami Afuni
Screen Australia: When ex-junkie, Johnny (Spit) Spitieri, flies into Australia on a false passport, he is locked up in an Immigration Detention Centre . The authorities want to know who he is, and where he's been. But so does gangster Chicka Martin, and his crooked cop mate, Arne Deviers, who are hot on Spit’s trail, and the Independent Public Integrity Commission is convinced the bumbling amnesiac is really an unlikely criminal mastermind. As Johnny talks up a storm without saying anything at all, he makes new friends amongst the detainees, and teaches them his version of mateship, and what it means to be truly Australian.
https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/spit-2024/41963
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Exhilarated! That’s how you will feel. As Shakespeare might say: A most serious comedy, the funniest awful crime movie, and a moving drama extraordinaire all in one. Spit is all about, and about all, humanity. It’s art not for the sake of art. It’s art which revives our faith in humanity, despite our worldly worries.
Like all the best Shakespearean comedies, all the confusion ends with a magnificent dance.
Another word you should use is rambunctious, or its synonyms like boisterous, unrestrained, irrepressible, exuberant, uproarious. It’s not often that a cinema audience applauds with such enthusiasm at the end of a movie.
And again afterwards, when we were lucky enough to have David Wenham here in Canberra in person, speaking about his experiences in making the film, reviving his character in the 2003 comedy Gettin' Square.
Unfortunately I never saw that film, but ABC Radio National says “The film became a cult hit, partly because of Wenham's mesmerising performance as the mullet-headed Spit. Two decades on, Spit is the star once more”. Wenham spoke with sincere respect of the importance and quality of the performances of the immigrant actors. And he explained that Christopher Nyst, who wrote both films, is a criminal lawyer and knows these characters well.
It’s not unreasonable to class this film as Shakespearian. It’s a comedy with depth of social understanding – and very specifically Australian. No-one here should miss it; and I think I can guarantee it will travel internationally to acclaim – and to lighten our world-wide woes.
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BTW The only problem I had with Spit was the title caused an email to be treated as spam!
And check out the Funeral Parlour women as a contrasting image:
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| Image from Spit Screen Australia, 2024-25 |
