You Can Choose Your Friends But Not Your Neighbors

In 2010, Prime Minister Tony Abbot echoed the voice of his predecessor Kevin Rudd in his plight for a new assessment of the resettlement policy – no one would be settled if they came by boat. Although this was a small gimmick from the electorate for the upcoming election, it gave the impression of a sadistic nature that politicians’ up fronted: entertaining themselves by inflicting pain on the less fortunate, uninvited and swarthy foreigners. Thus, it led to a polarized Australian society, with Australian refugees on one side and Australian citizens on the other. However, as a loving and tender soul, documentarian Tim Toni saw these differences not through discriminatory lenses, but accepted it as a piece in a puzzle called: Multiculturalism. This idea of a multicultural society was a dominant viewpoint in where it would be racist to assert a national identity. It was a viewpoint that saw vilification of Australia’s past along with the present day Australians who based an identity around respect for it. However, others couldn’t see this side of the coin, which lead to a twisted solidarity between the afflicted individuals and the common mass. Thus, Tim Toni aimed to stitch back the fission in Australia’s society, capturing the essence of social cohesion through his 2014 documentary series episode two, ‘Living with the Enemy: Detention Centres’.

‘Living with the Enemy: Detention Centres’ was the second episode to a six-part provocative documentary series that explored controversial notions in Australia’s present society, shaped for entertainment purposes, as an explosive social experiment. And as the name suggests, it would put together two individuals, on either spectrum of their belief, to live in each other’s homes. Thus, sparking a debate in hope of reconciliation. Truly envisioning the quote, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. Aired on the 3rd of September to the 8th of October, ‘Living with the Enemy’ walks into the lives of a patriotic Australian, Jenny, and an Iranian refugee, Morteza. As the episode proper opens, the viewer sees Morteza travel from his home in Sydney to Jenny’s home in Airline Beach. Noticeably in the first few frames, Jenny’s house is displayed in a ‘true blue’ manner - the beachfront house and the large Australian flag. Moreover, the directors’ intent to paint Jenny as a patriot compounds more as the film unfolds, prominently displayed during Jenny’s lawn bowling session with her friends – a traditional Australian value.

To the typical snags on a barbie to the flip-flop attire nothing represents more Australian. However, beyond the skillful manipulation of the setting, the scene presents a harrowing truth about Morteza. Morteza is alone, surrounded by Jenny and her friends, symbolizing asylum’s seekers vulnerability in a foreign country, where language and community are just an ‘ultima Thule’.

This symbolic representation offers viewers into a typical, yet sorrowful, peek into the lives of asylum seekers. Morteza’s identity becomes more consolidated when the debate about detention centers escalates, when he becomes a target of Jenny and her friend’s questions. This constructs scenes of intimidation and mistreatment, further reinforcing Morteza’s identity of being a victim. The juxtaposition between both parties realizes the director’s intent in showing the audience fault lines in today’s social cohesion. However, what might surprise the audience in this situation is how the documentary captures Morteza’s brave and unwilling nature. Striking present in his strong, yet not aggressive, voice and open body language. Depicted, representing his beliefs on the impartiality of detention centers on unshakable grounds. Morteza wasn’t out to be controversial but to persuade in words, namely facts and figures, that detention centers were ‘prisons’. But when Jenny is blinded by her own patriotic views and the bias media representations splashed across her newspapers and TV screens, shown through her attitudes, Morteza understood that he needed ways to break down the self-mythologizing wall of Australia. This illustrated Australian’s prejudice against asylum seekers, Jenny further underpinning this through her witty comments, “This is my only country… He wants Australia gone”. Therefore, Morteza begins to tell of his own experiences and involves his personal psychiatrist. His personal experience, pictured as heart wrenching, offsets Jenny’s philosophy of hysteria and violent natures of such ‘boat people’. The director’s intent to show the parallels in today’s society are hard to miss, as is the current need for Morteza’s sincerity and idealism. This documentary exposes the man, who struggled at times with the kinds of insecurities and fears he addressed head-on in and out of the ‘prisons’: fear of being deported, losing his friends and family but worst of all being unaccepted by the ‘haven’ he sought for.

The camera see how uncomfortable he is to open himself at the start and how infuriated he found when he tried to explain his circumstances to Jenny. Whereas her friends and herself let his words flow out their ears, positioning him and categorizing him as a man who will introduce violence, namely: riots, vandalism or even worse, murder into Australia -their home. Nevertheless, as an ordained Christian, Morteza slowly, but surely, utilizes his time with Jenny to preach his message – the truth of detention centers. Tim Toni’s film does not canonize the man but rather amplifies his motive of showing the fault lines in society’s cohesion.