Synopsis

Toomelah is a deeply personal, albeit fictitious story, that intimately depicts mission life in contemporary Australia. The film reveals the challenges facing the young Gamilaroi people of Toomelah community, in north-west NSW. They live in a world of limbo.

Robbed of much of their traditional culture by government policy, they are still largely disconnected from modern Australia. It is a community on a cultural edge, struggling for an identity.

The story is told through the eyes of ten-year-old boy, Daniel who has grown up on Toomelah. Through the story of Daniel and his family, we enter a tough world, but one that is balanced by an authenticity and an intimacy that delivers real poignancy.

Daniel becomes a drug courier and trainee gangster for the local dealer Linden and his teenage posse. When a another dealer sets up on the community, a showdown ensues and Daniel is thrust into a world of violence that leads to a major bust in Toomelah. Linden and his gang are taken off to jail.

Daniel is suddenly alone and has to work out where his life is heading.

Toomelah is set entirely in the remote Indigenous community of Toomelah, located on the NSW, QLD border. It was created as a mission during the 1930s, bringing together Gamilaroi and Bigambal people from the surrounding area.

This is a special Australian film. It shows aspects of Australia that haven't been seen in the cinema before.

— Ivan Sen, director

[Toomelah] is like a first-hand, intimate tour through an Australian Indigenous community.

— David Jowsey, producer