MOVIE REVIEW : IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE OF ROMANCE IN ‘SILVER CITY’

Between 1947 and the late 1950s, 1.5 million Europeans, displaced by World War II, emigrated to Australia as part of a government program to increase the population and stimulate economic and industrial growth. Today, a third of the country’s citizens are foreign-born or first-generation Australians.

For “Silver City” (at the Monica, Los Feliz and Town & Country), writer-director Sophia Turkiewicz, in her auspicious feature debut, has drawn upon the immigrant experiences of family, friends and colleagues as a background for a passionate love story co-written with Thomas Keneally.

“Silver City” is that rare instance in which romance and history illuminate and intensify each other. The time is 1962 and an elegantly dressed, 30-ish blond (Gosia Dobrowolska) encounters a handsome, 40-ish man (Ivar Kants) on a train. They greet each other calmly, but clearly there are strong emotional undercurrents in their chance meeting. Suddenly we’re flashed back to 1949, and we can pick the two of them out in a crowd of refugees disembarking from an ocean liner. They’re all heading for Silver City, a refugee camp that takes its nickname from its corrugated metal Quonset huts.

Dobrowolska and Kants are drawn to each other and become carried away, despite the fact that Kants is married to the devoted and trusting Anna Jemison. Normally, two such substantial people who behaved this way would lose our sympathy, but that’s the point: Their situation is anything but normal. Both have suffered in their native Poland during the war, and now they’ve been uprooted and set down in a frequently hostile country.

Every circumstance drives them together: the frustration and uncertainty of their predicament, the culture shock, the absurd segregated housing that separates husband from wife, even the decreased influence of the church so far from home. Turkiewicz makes no apology for the selfishness in their conduct; rather, she invites us to understand it.

That “Silver City” has developed from inside knowledge makes it all the more fresh and involving. Xenophobia, for example, greets the newcomers on all sides, but as they become acclimated, the natives in turn seem to grow friendlier. Not surprisingly, “Silver City” has a decidedly warm and intimate Eastern European sensibility, heightened by William Motzing’s deliberately old-fashioned romantic score.

Like Turkiewicz, her stars could also draw upon their own experiences as immigrants or as the children of immigrants. Dobrowolska came to Australia from Poland in 1982; Kants was born to Latvian immigrants, and Jemison, daughter of a Spanish mother and an Italian-French father, was 10 when her family arrived at an Australian immigrant camp.

Turkiewicz draws splendid performances from them all--Jemison is especially effective in suggesting her character’s inner life--and from others, such as Steve Bisley and Tim McKenzie. Who would have guessed that Bisley, the quintessential good-natured Aussie bloke, could be so convincing as a Polish immigrant? And McKenzie has wonderful moments as the shy, homely farmer who hopes Dobrowolska will be his bride.

“Silver City” (rated PG for adult themes) is one of those films that yields more when seen again, always the true test of a good movie. It was deeply affecting at Filmex last year, and now seems even richer the second time around.

‘SILVER CITY’ A Samuel Goldwyn Co. release of a Limelight Production. Producer Joan Long. Director Sophia Turkiewicz. Screenplay Turkiewicz, Thomas Keneally. Camera John Seale. Music William Motzing. Art director Igor Nay. Costumes Jan Hurley. Film editor Don Saunders. With Gosia Dobrowolska, Ivar Kants, Anna Jemison, Steve Bisley, Debra Lawrence, Ewa Brok, Joel Cohen, Tim McKenzie, Annie Byron, Steve Jacobs, Halina Abramowicz, Joseph Drewniak, Ron Blanchard.

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG (parental guidance suggested; some material may not be suitable for children).