Once My Mother

After World War II, 4,000 Polish families came to Australia. They were Jews, Fascists, anti-Communists, and others dispossessed. In a large hostel, where even married men and women were housed in separate barracks, the adults lived for two years while they worked off the government's payment of their passage. Even though he is married to Anna and has a son, Julian falls in love with Nina and she with him. As they and others face the new situations and prejudices that await immigrants and as they take on aspects of Australian culture, old-country values reassert themselves. Julian decides what to do about love and family, and Nina must find a way to move on.

In Sydney in 1950 a young Polish woman waits for the arrival of Tadek, her prospective husband. She and her baby have come to Australia from a German refugee camp. Working as a night cleaner in a city office, she strikes up a casual friendship with the nightwatchman and waits for Tadek.