Concrete Playground

For 35 years, acclaimed Australian director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Charlotte Gray) has been following the lives of three Adelaide women. What started as a one-off short film documenting what it is to be a 14-year-old in 1975 has become a five-part series, with Armstrong checking in with the girls again at 18, 26, 33 and 47. For those unfamiliar with the project, the opening 25 minutes of the latest installment, Love, Lust & Lies, is devoted to bringing the audience up to date with the lives of best friends Kerry, Diana and Josie.

Time brings marriages, children, financial woes and hopeful dreams for the trio in what is a captivating portrait of family, motherhood and aspiration. All three dropped out of school as soon as possible, and the inter-generational consequences resonate profoundly with the women’s common wish for a better life for their children. Armstrong captures all with a compassionate and reflexive eye, as she unobtrusively includes herself in the film as a testament to what has become a life-long friendship.

Indeed, rather than relegate these women to the proverbial quiet lives of desperation, Armstrong has created a compelling social document. And though there are obviously similarities to Michael Apted’s famous Seven-Up series, Armstrong’s achievement is unique to Australian cinema, providing both a fascinating social history and a deeply personal account of these three remarkable, ordinary women.