Mike and Stefani (1955)

A Ukrainian couple become refugees during and after World War Two, and they end up as Displaced Persons (DPs) in a camp in Germany, before they are eventually accepted for resettlement in Australia.

Date of release
1955-01-02
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 3m
Genres
Drama, Documentary
Director
R. Maslyn Williams

Casting

Interesting facts

Mike and Stefani is a 1952 Australian drama film produced by the Film Division, News and Information Bureau of the Department of Interior for the Department of Immigration. Made to counter criticism of Australia's post-war immigration policy that it was too lax, it tells the true story of a Ukrainian refugee couple who move to Australia. The film is in the style of the Italian neorealism movement.

Production

Ron Maslyn Williams was sent to Europe in June 1949 accompanied by documentary cameraman Reginald Pearse. They spent several months researching and developing a script. They discovered a displaced persons camp for Polish and Ukrainian refugees at Leipheim in Bavaria, which was run by a former Melbourne school teacher, Valerie Paling. A family was selected and a script developed based on their lives.

Shooting took place over two months in the winter of 1949–50. The interview of Mike and Stefani by Australian Immigration official Harold Grant was real, with the family actually not yet assured of acceptance into Australia. However they were successful and the crew followed them to Australia. Additional shots were taken at the Film Division headquarters at Burwood, New South Wales.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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