The Rage in Placid Lake (2003, Australia)

Placid goes to school in a dress Forget the daft title; Placid Lake is a young Australian boy, and he has the misfortune to have very Bohemian parents. While he is still young they send him to school wearing a dress, to challenge the others' preconceptions about gender. (He is played as a young boy by Jordan Brooking). Of course this results in his getting beaten up, and that more or less forms the theme of the first part of the film, as he gets older.


Gemma befriends Placid He is brighter than the others, another fact that encourages them to bully him, and only a girl called Gemma is on his wavelength intellectually. Eventually Placid decides what he wants to do with his life, and he becomes more conventional than his hippy parents could ever have dreamed of.

Australian film-making has not always been successful, and for sure this film will not be the biggest box-office draw ever, but its slanted take on life and relationships is creative and interesting.

HF May 2007


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