Miss

This debut feature from director Wayne Blair transports four young Aboriginal women and their Motown-inspired soul-sisters act from an impoverished Outback mission to war-torn Vietnam. Aboriginal actress Debra Mailman, plays hard-crusted Gail, the group’s sharp-tongued leader who, against her better judgment, falls for Dave and learns to love, accepts her sisters as independent women and sees her cousin Kay for the strong, black family member she it. Sweetly simple Sapphires is hardly a cinematic diamond but this identity-and-belonging-find style mash-up of music and melodrama manages to showcase on the basis true story, and open our eyes to the racist prejudice that may still be tormenting aboriginals to this day. Moreover, the audience get a glimpse at the more intimate development of a black woman who thought she had control of the land beneath her feet, but who ended up falling between the earthquake cracks of her distorted world vision, once war hit, love stuck, light shone and her eyes opened, throughout the life-changing journey in Vietnam.

A powerful experience of true love is said to have influencing powers of such

Deborah Mailman truly shines as Gail, portraying a fiercely protective and caring character. She is flawed, as are all of the characters, but Mailman and a clever script develop these flaws in a way that is humanising and appealing. Mailman is only just upstaged by O’Dowd, whose clever one-liners, drunken antics and passionate speeches make his character central to the dynamics of the story. The chemistry between Mailman and O’Dowd is perfect: not too obvious, but believable and quite moving. While the two leads most definitely steal the show, Mauboy’s voice is likely to send shivers down the spines of movie-goers, and the passion behind her singing gives her character extra depth.

Most interesting is the fiery relationship between Gail and Dave: Gail is not used to being on the other end of a bossy personality