AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It's 1990 and an Indonesian fishing boat abandons Iraqi and Cambodian refugees in a remote part of Western Australia. While most are quickly caught by officials, three men with nothing in common but their misfortune and determination escape arrest and begin an epic journey into the heart of Australia. Pursued by an army reservist unit, our three heroes wander deeper into the desert, desperately searching for a Western-style democracy amongst the stones of the Pilbara. A film about distance, difference and dud maps.'
Source: Screen Australia.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Lucky Miles Rewatched : A Smuggler and Two Asylum Seekers Walk into the Desert
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 25 October 2015;
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
Fatal Thresholds: Dramas of the Impossible Subject
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Phoenix : Sri Lanka Journal of English in the Commonwealth , no. 12 2015; (p. 17-37) -
'Modern' Cinematic Encounters : Border Crossing and Environmental Transformation in Some Recent Australian Films
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , 24 August vol. 5 no. 2 2011; (p. 185-192) 'In Australia (and globally), refugees and 'the environment' are major sources of anxiety that define the experience of living in modern times. Contemporary social policy is then a representational technology that speaks to environmental and crosscultural transactions within 'modern' Australian cinematic texts. This article tracks the conversational contours between policy on climate change and border control in Australia and representations of self-other and self-environment relations in Australian film produced in the latter period of the Howard era (1996-2007). Films have frequently sought to mobilize a range of visions and understandings of both security and sustainability, and of the associated productions of policy, identity and space. Such exchanges necessitate critical scrutiny of the politicized cultural contexts that produce them - and an awareness of the normative reassertions that accompany these cinematic mediations of modern Australian experience.' (Author's abstract)
-
Impossible Threshold? Refugees, Diaspora and the Frontiers of Citizenship : Narrating Asylum Seeker Stories
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 23 no. 5 2009; (p. 647-662) Bridging Imaginations : South Asian Diaspora in Australia 2013; (p. 85-110) -
'Welcome to Paradise' : Asylum Seekers, Neoliberalism, Nostalgia and Lucky Miles
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 23 no. 5 2009; (p. 629-645) 'This article considers the Australian film Lucky Miles (2007) in the context of the developing emphasis in Australia through the 1990s and 2000s on neoliberal policies. This emphasis started with the Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and was qualitatively reinforced by the conservative coalition government of John Howard. Lucky Miles is a film which narratives the experience of asylum seekers arriving on the Australian mainland. My focus is particularly on the impact of neoliberalism on the role of the border and on the popular attitude towards asylum seekers. To help develop this argument I also consider the film Children of Men (2006), which is set in Britain in a dystopian future. I analyse Lucky Miles to understand how it replicates anxieties about asylum seekers and the porosity of the border that are, at bottom, a consequence of changing attitudes bred by neoliberal policies.' (Author's abstract p. 629)
-
Lost in an Empty Paradise
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 July 2007; (p. 15)
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
ArtsFilm
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 18 - 24 July no. 645 2007; (p. 26)
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
Mothers and Daughters
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 July 2007; (p. 27)
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
Betrayed - By the Way We Greet Strangers
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 22 July 2007; (p. 14-15)
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
Men Overboard
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 31 July vol. 125 no. 6580 2007; (p. 54)
— Review of Lucky Miles 2007 single work film/TV -
Dry Humour
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7-8 July 2007; (p. 21) -
First Steps and Tough Roads
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Age , 14 July 2007; (p. 17) -
Border Insecurity
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13 July 2007; (p. 9) -
A Long Way from Here
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 July 2007; (p. 18-19) -
Tinkering at the Borders : Lucky Miles and the Diasporic (No) Road Movie
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Diasporas of Australian Cinema 2009; (p. 29-40) 'During the late 1990s and early 2000s, independent political documentaries, including Clara Law's Letters to Ali (2004) and Tom Zubrycki's Molly and Mobarak (2003), contested the prevailing anti-asylum-seeker discourse in Australian media. Australian feature film-making, however, had been noticeably silent on this issue until the release of Michael James Rowland's debut, Lucky Miles (2007). This film revolves around the quest of three exiles to seek civilization, resist capture and survive in the desert after being abandoned by an Indonesian fishing vessel in remote Western Australia. Pursued by an Army Reservist unit that seems more interested in fishing and football than the (seemingly impossible) task of maintaining border integrity, the three exiles become more and more lost as they wander deeper into the desert.' (p. 29)
Awards
- 2008 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting
- 2007 shortlisted Asia Pacific Screen Awards — Best Screenplay
- 2007 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Original Screenplay
- 2007 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Macquarie Private Wealth Award for Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)
- 2007 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards — Best Film
Last amended 14 Oct 2014 10:10:30
Settings:
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,
- 1990
Export this record