Poison

This drama, the first ever to come out of the ABC’s ‘Blackout’ series, considers three major aspects of Aboriginal reality - assimilation, adoption and sexual abuse, and how these circumstances have prompted the addictive personalities. It is the ugly, yet surprisingly beautiful, story of four troubled young people living together in a city squat. Although this film is about Aboriginal people, it is essentially about people in general - their anguish, their pain and their need to be loved and accepted. The story takes place within 24 hours and begins with languid preparations for a night on the town. Raylene (Lydia Miller), Wayne (Russell Page), Laniece (Rhoda Roberts) and Sharon (Lillian Crombie) stumble their way through a sleazy round of nightspots, becoming increasingly stoned and disoriented. While clinging to the fragile security they provide for each other, each is lost in his or her own private world, trying to contend with a past that keeps rearing its ugly head. ‘Poison’ is a telling tale about the difficulties experienced by so many Aboriginal people in coming to terms with themselves, their past and a society that has wronged them and demonstrates their struggle to cope with life under the cloud.