Year of Production: 2002
Duration: 52 minutes
Awards:
2004 Logie Award Nominee
2002 Torino International Women’s Film Festival
2001 WOW Festival
The path to parenthood is never easy – especially when adopting from another country. Shot over a period of 2 years this is a warm and intimate portrait of lives about to change, the pain of the long wait, the reality of racism and the power of love. Follows the process for a young Australian couple adopting a Korean baby.
Justine and Michael are young, good-looking and infertile.
Fortunately their relationship is strong, as is their resolve. It will need to be because their attitudes and deepest feelings are very much under the microscope. A country on the other side of the world is about to give them one of their most precious resources – a baby.
It is the job of the Department of Community Services to be certain that these two Anglo-Australians will make an ideal home for a young Korean child. Justine and Michael are already up to their armpits in paperwork, medical tests and police checks, but it is the relationship they develop with Penny Haskins, the social worker appointed to their case, that will make or break their hopes for a family.
Other pregnancies last for nine months, Justine’s and Michael’s will last for two years. And with nothing physical to show for it, their path to parenthood is a long, frustrating and often lonely affair. However, it’s all worth it for one magic telephone call…
“Hi Honey, where are you? Are you sitting down? You’re a mother. We’ve got a baby boy.”
Ultimately, Justine and Michael journey to South Korea to collect their precious gift. The five days spent absorbing the details of Jeong’s homeland will be etched into their memories forever and form part of the story they plan to pass on to him – about where he came from and how he became their child.
It is here in Korea, however, that their joy as expectant parents becomes intertwined with the sorrow of Jeong’s foster mother, for it is she who has cared for and loved Jeong for all five months of his young life. Surrendering him to a couple of tall white strangers is heart wrenching.
This is a warm and intimate portrait of lives about to change, the pain of the wait, the reality of racism and the power of love.
An Iris Pictures and Heiress Films Production. Produced with the assistance of SBS Independent. Financed by the Australian Film Finance Corporation.
producers Jessica Douglas-Henry, Christopher Thorburn
director Jennifer Cummins
editor Emma Hay
Broadcast on SBS-TV.
Contact Screen Australia for Distribution or Program Sales.
