Selkie - A South Australian Movie

As a 16 year old Jamie wants a lot of things, clear skin, to play in a rock band and most importantly to have a girlfriend.

What any teenager doesn't want is to be different and sadly for Jamie that's just what he is - very different. You see, Jamie's the lead character in a new South Australian movie called "Selkie" about a boy who's part human, part seal.

In Celtic mythology, these hybrid creatures known as selkies take their place alongside the legends of the mermaids. It's an exotic tale shot in exotic locations like Pt. Noarlunga, Southport and Victor Harbor.

And the man behind all this is Prospect-based film producer, Rob George who's always had a love for his own backyard.

"I know my own city pretty well. I've lived here all my life and I love it and this beach in particular, Port Noarlunga, goes way back in my memory, to when I was very little and we lived at Yankalilla and we used to come down here a little bit and I'd seen McLaren Vale and my family used to live there and so we'd come down here. And when I was at University, I helped start up the university skin diving club and we'd always come down diving off the reef. I used to always love it and I just think it's a wonderful place and I've never seen anything to beat it anywhere".

So this local jetty that many of us know as a great fishing spot became the focal point for much of the action on the remote and mythical Jackson Island. In fact, the movie highlights how imagination, a good eye, and a love of your own State, can turn a suburban beach into the home of Loopy Laura, another Selkie who lives as an outcast in the remote sandhills.

"At the end of the day, it's about coming to terms with who you are and as for Jamie, he has what he sees as an affliction, a curse - he's been cursed by this ancestral inheritance and comes to realise that we're all made up of our inherited genes from everybody - from all our grandparents, before them and before them, and we've just got to make the most of who we are and what we've been given".

And for film producer, Rob George, South Australia has given him wonderful locations, and the talents of those who can make fantasy a reality.

"Herbert was made by Anifex which is a local company which do a lot of clay animation as well as cell animation - and they made the giraffe and the giraffe legs in the giraffe bath commercial".

While Selkie may not be the Hollywood blockbuster, this family movie emphasises the places that we take for granted, and for Rob George, local film making is all about shaping and reshaping images of ourselves.

"How else do we know who we are unless it's through what we read and what we see, what we interact with. Yes, we've got to realise that status can belong here as well as somewhere else".

Selkie is playing at a variety of cinema outlets throughout Australia.

For more information you can email info@postcards-sa.com.au