Looking for Alibrandi

Kate Woods's 2000 debut feature works from a screenplay Melina Marchetta adapted from her own novel. Josie Alibrandi, seventeen and living in Sydney as the third generation of an Italian migrant family, does not know where she belongs; this is the year she faces her fears, uncovers family secrets and finds out who her father is. The film treats migrant identity not as cultural colour but as a field where three generations of women collide. Pia Miranda's Josie carries the self-regard and the fragility of a teenage narrator at once. The film's bravest move is showing a supporting character's suicide without softening or explaining it, which was not a usual choice in Australian youth cinema. It won the Australian Film Institute awards for best film and best adapted screenplay. Who it's for: viewers interested in coming-of-age drama, migrant family stories and Australian cinema. Who it's not for: anyone approaching suicide content unprepared, or who will find the teenage narrating voice tiring.