Polish fairy-tale film: 130 years of innovation and counting

In first section, this chapter explains why they do not include Aboriginal narratives and, therefore, why it focuses on the European fairy-tale tradition’s influence in regard to the Australian fairy-tale literature of the 1890s and the films we later discuss. The chapter draws attention to the recurring trope of the “lost child” as a signifier of the anxieties of colonial identity. The centrality of national identity in Australian cinema, complicated by the fluctuating fortunes of the domestic film industry, has also had an impact on the production of fairy-tale films in Australia. The chapter outlines these matters in the second section, where it surveys a range of fairy-tale films made since the 1970s, asking what makes a fairy-tale film Australian. Finally, the chapter presents studies based on what it identifies as the dominant and emergent features of Australian fairy-tale films. Its aim is to be representative, not comprehensive, and to focus on films that are distinctively Australian in flavor.