New film Birthright is a biting, relatable satire on Australia’s housing affordability crisis
- Written by The Conversation
Angry, twisted, macabre: new Australian film director Zoe Pepper has made a film perfectly crafted to meet the heated debates about Australia’s housing affordability crisis.
Birthright darkly satirises the intergenerational conflict between boomer parents and ageing millennial children – two population groups that have vastly different experiences when it comes to employment, home ownership and raising a family.
The film raises unsettling questions about the kinds of entitlements younger generations should ask from elder ones, and the suburban mayhem that ensues when such requests are denied.
Blame games
From columnist Bernard Salt’s infamous critique of millennial smashed avocado brunches, to the worldwide “OK boomer” meme, there is no shortage of moralistic media coverage trying to pit the generations against one another.
There is also the “SKI” movement, which stands for “spending your kid’s inheritance”. This is grounded in the belief that retired parents should spend their life savings, rather than putting it away for their offspring. One news article on this topic quotes a retired mother who sees the child’s expectations as a moral failing:
There are generations coming through that just don’t expect to work. They expect to inherit or be given or bought a family home by their parents.
What do parents really owe their kids?
As the title suggests, the oscillation between the entitlement of inheritance versus the desperate need for family support is the main dynamic that fuels the drama of Birthright.
The film begins with Cory (Travis Jeffery) and Jasmine (Maria Angelico) evicted from their flat, struggling to jam their possessions into their small car. Both in their late thirties, Jasmine is heavily pregnant and Cory is unemployed. Things are looking bleak.
With no other option, the couple travel to Cory’s parents’ home, masking a long stay under the pretence of a short visit. Parents Richard (Michael Hurst) and Lyn (Linda Cropper) are immediately distrustful and put out by the young couple’s intentions.
Cory’s relationship with his parents is notably strained – he hadn’t even invited them to his wedding – so they’re not happy about an extended stay. When he explains “the rental market’s fucked”, Richard retorts “well, you should own your own house by now!”
At first, they ask to stay for a night. Lyn says the “guest room is in a state”, so they are forced to bunk in Cory’s old room. The discrepancy between the luxurious home and the cramped conditions of the room is played as comical.
It all goes badly very quickly. Cory’s sense of having a “birthright” is apparent as soon as he arrives, when he finds the spare key to enter the home. Meanwhile, Jasmine helps herself to Lyn’s discarded designer clothing she finds stuffed in the rubbish bins. Lyn is so well off she can’t understand that her clothes would be highly valued in the second-hand market.
Richard and Lyn’s begrudging boomer attitude, and their inability to consider the needs of their younger family is presented as monstrous, breaking long-lived family hospitality rules.
TV’s deeply troubled families
In Australian television, we often see intergenerational conflict demonstrated for comic effect. Comedy series Kath and Kim (2002–07) was premised on ungrateful daughter Kim moving back into the family home after her breakup, and ruining Kath’s peace with her new boyfriend Kel.
Similarly, the Moody family, in A Moody Christmas (2012) and The Moodys (2014), is a celebration of family dysfunction. The suburban family home becomes the site for heated sibling rivalry.
In contrast, Birthright is a much nastier depiction of family drama.
All the characters are unlikable. While parents Richard and Lyn are psychotically ignorant about the children’s stark financial situation, Cory and Jasmine are also overly entitled, mean-spirited and deeply resentful when they’re at the home.
Cory’s expectation to receive a family inheritance as the solution for his financial problems seems tone-deaf – nothing more than a replication of the bourgeois life of his parents. He essentially doesn’t mind perpetuating a flawed system. And this leads to things getting sinister.
Haunted by hopes and memories
Ultimately, I like to think about this film as a darkly humorous ghost story. It’s a ghost story about the great Australian post-second world war dream of owning a large suburban home with a sprawling garden.
In ghost stories, the “haunted house” is frequently used as symbol of intergenerational unrest, and undermines the family home’s identity as a place of safety and refuge.
This is certainly the case in Birthright. Cory and Jasmine are haunted by the promise of a comfortable home for their unborn child, which feels unattainable.
The family home is an imposing symbol of their misery, and it seems that it will doom them all.
Birthright is in cinemas from today.
