Jean-Yves Tang

THIS is the true story of Rose, a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer, who struggles to survive in seventies Australia with two young children.

Based on writer/director Tony Ayres' own life, The Home Song Stories is an epic tale of mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, unrequited love, betrayal and secrets.

Ayres explains: “One of the main themes explored is unrequited love - and all of the key players have a dream that they’re pursuing which unfortunately doesn’t include the other major characters.
"So the film is about Rose, this woman who has a driving passion to find a home for herself
and her children, but who inevitably makes all the wrong decisions in trying to do that.

Simultaneously it’s about Joe, a young man also seeking a sense of home and place, but unfortunately it’s not with the woman who it should be with.

And then there’s Bill, an essentially decent man who brings this wild, untameable woman to a foreign country only to find that she isn’t the meek, placid, wife that he wanted, but regardless, still loves her.

But at its core, the film is about a young boy’s relationship to his mother and how that ultimately
deteriorates through her actions. Initially Tom’s relationship with Rose is loving.

The relationship starts to unravel as he increasingly feels the effect of her erratic nature and it comes to a dead halt after his sister’s suicide attempt. That’s the moment when Tom detaches himself from his mother. In a way, the film’s journey is about these two children, Tom and May, being dragged on a roller coaster ride by their mother and never really knowing where they’re going, what’s happening or where they’ll be next.

They survive through their close relationship to each other but when that bond is directly threatened by Rose’s actions, Tom says, ‘enough is enough.’”

McMahon agrees, adding: “It’s about survivorship at all odds - a desire to look after the people who you love and the sacrifices that you are prepared to make in order to do that”.

welcome chez Jean-Yves Tang

«D'ici la terre va tourner»

"Il n'y a rien de plus dangereux que la tranquillité. Je suis toujours inquiet quand il ne se passe rien, ça veut dire que la tempête se prépare. Alors que, quand tu te prépares dans la tempête, tu sais que c'est le beau temps qui arrive.»