Written by John Doyle

Directed by Cherie Nowlan

A four part, mini series that was aired on the ABC last year. The DVD is presented in a two disc boxed set and runs for approx 210 minutes. Marking Time is a story set in a small country town in N.S.W in the year 2000 and tells the Story of Hal?s (short for Halifax) journey from school boy to man over the course of a year.

Hal has just finished school, been accepted into uni to study Law, and taken a year off to hang around and ?find himself? in the town where he has spent his whole life. Hal is a sensible boy, but he is still hanging around with his friends from Primary school, and in a small country town there is little to do except get drunk or stoned, his friends are causing him a great deal of conflict between right and wrong. Hal is content to just go along with his friends until one day he meets a young Afganee refugee in the local caf?; he is besotted with her and definitely wants to get to know her better. Hal knows nothing of the war in Afghanistan and has little understanding of the refugees or their plight, so he is forced to do some research before he can formally meet Randa.

Randa is a traditional Muslin girl and always wears a headscarf that attracts the attention of nearly everyone in town. Hal and his father decide that the best way to ask Randa out is to ask her father if he will allow them to go on a date. Hal?s plan work well and the two fathers meet and discuss the arrangements for Hal and Randa to ?date?. Hal is now torn between Randa, the girl he loves and his friends who are bored small-minded small country town teenagers. Hal is at constant conflict with what he knows to be right and what his friends want him to do with them.

The four episodes follow Randa and Hal?s courtship and Hal?s awakening to the realisation that his hometown holds no future for him. Issues of racism and the plight of refugees in our country are cleverly individualised in this film, as are the moral issues surrounding drug and alcohol abuse among the youth of Australia.

In a new style of narration, Hal tells his story directly to the camera and the effect is brilliant. Hal is able to explain what he is thinking and seeing without having to have great amounts of dialogue or scene setting. The film is ?hard hitting? and does not cover up any of the ugliness of the story. Watching this film gave me a very ?real? insight into the issues raised, and the underlying moral of the story is one of tolerance.

I must admit the first few minutes of this film were confronting, but once I had started to watch it I was hooked. I really enjoyed this and was refreshed by how different it was from other made for TV shows. The reality was brilliant and the characters were appealing the acting standard was high and the actors gave fantastic performances. Rated M (15+) this is a DVD that the ABC should be proud to have made and I highly recommend it for an adult audience.

THE EXTRAS

No Special Features and disappointingly no subtitles, just the movie

CONCLUSION

A four part, mini series that was aired on the ABC last year. Marking Time is a story set in a small country town in N.S.W in the year 2000 and tells the Story of Hal?s (short for Halifax) journey from school boy to man over the course of a year. Issues of racism and the plight of refugees in our country are cleverly individualised in this film, as are the moral issues surrounding drug and alcohol abuse among the youth of Australia.