Moving Out (1983) – Nostalgia Central

Gino Condello (newcomer Vince Colosimo) is a 15-year-old Italian-Australian boy living with his migrant family in the gritty inner-city Melbourne suburb of North Fitzroy.

He is caught between differing lifestyles – between the Aussie way at school (where he wants to be fully accepted by his Australian peers) and the tradition-bound attitudes and ways of his Italian family.

Gino supports the local Collingwood football team, hangs out with his mates, Renato (Maurice Devincentis) and Allan (Tibor Gyapjas), at pinball parlours and vacant lots of abandoned cars.

He rejects his ancestry and background, actively refusing to speak Italian at home, despite his parents relying on him to translate English.

“You can choose whether you stay a wog or not in Australia,” he shouts at his barely comprehending father (Peter Sardi).

Though casual and humorous in its approach to some of the problems experienced by Australia’s ethnic communities, Moving Out succeeds in bringing home the seriousness of its subject matter by following the central character’s everyday movements over a two-week period of adjustment prior to the family’s ‘moving out’ to relocate to a bigger, quieter house in the leafy, distant middle-class suburb of Doncaster, and fulfill their own version of the migrant dream.

The film — produced and directed by 24-year-old Michael Pattinson — was nominated for the 1982 Australian Film Institute Awards in the categories of Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Achievement in Sound.

Gino Condello
Vince Colosimo
Renato
Maurice Devincentis
Allan
Tibor Gyapjas
Sandy
Sally Cooper
Helen
Desirée Smith
Maria
Nicole Miranda
Franca
Santina Failla
Pippo
Julio Dalleore
Gino’s Father
Peter Sardi
Gino’s Mother
Kate Jason
Maria’s Father
Luciano Catenacci
Maria’s Mother
Sylvie Fonti
Mr Aitkins
Brian James
Miss Stanislaus
Sandy Gore
Mr Clarke
Ivar Kants
Tony
Tony Volpe
Peter
Alan Crapper
Nick
Vince Moro
Joe
Charles Garzarella
Grandmother
Josephine Russian
Gino’s Godfather
Sean Myers

Director
Michael Pattinson

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