Multiculturalism in the Film Looking for Alibrandi

This paper analyzes the issue of multiculturalism in the film Looking for Alibrandi, directed by Kate Woods. The cultural factors and characters are analyzed to find the main issues inherent in the film. The protagonist, Josie Alibrandi, is a rebellious character who opposes the traditional Italian culture and wants to live her life as per the Australian culture. Her hatred against the Italian life and culture can be remarked as justified as she began to live with freedom as per the opposing Australian life and culture.

Running head: FILM HISTORY
Film History
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1FILM HISTORY
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss on the topic of multiculturalism in the film
Looking for Alibrandi. This film was released in the year 2000. The cultural factors in this film
would be analyzed to find the main issues that are inherent in this film. The director of the fim
was Kate Woods. This film can be taken as a multilingual film that has many important
characters to be analyzed for the issue of multiculturalism.1
The issue of multiculturalism
The issue of multiculturalism had been highlighted in this film in a true manner. This is
why the film had won many critical acclaims all the way indeed. The central characters of this
film are Josie Alibrandi, Jacob Coote, John Barton, Nonna Katia, Christina Alibrandi, Michael
Andretti and others. Josie Alibrandi is the protagonist of the film and her mother is Christina
Alibrandi.2 Christina is considered to be very much protective about her daughter. The
relationship between the mother and daughter is not always easy and it sometimes get strained.
The father of Josie is Michael Andretti with whom Rosie does not share a healthy relationship
because of the things he did with her mother.
1 Armillei, Riccardo. "A multicultural Italy?." Cultural, Religious and Political Contestations. Springer, Cham,
2015. 135-151.
2 Iaia, Pietro Luigi. "Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in Migration Movies:
Pragmalinguistic Features, Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation Issues(2015): 61-68. Iaia, Pietro Luigi.
"Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in Migration Movies: Pragmalinguistic Features,
Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation Issues(2015): 61-68.

2FILM HISTORY
Christina Alibrandi, the mother of Josie is basically an Italian by birth and this is why she
has some problems and clashes while adjusting with the Australian identity. The family of Josie
had some ambitions for her future life. However, her own ambitions had taken over those dreams
as well. From her childhood, Josie has always known that her father Michael Andretti had
abandoned her and her mother Christina. Nonna Katia is a traditional housewife from Italy who
has been known for her mastery over cooking. The birth of Josie had always been criticized by
Nonna.3
This criticism had a great impact on the mind of Christina. As a result, the entire Italian
community treated Christina in a sarcastic manner. This behavior from the Italian society on
Christina and her daughter was not at all acceptable. This had created a grudge in the minds of
Josie for the Italian society. Josie had been very much angry on her father for his deeds. Josie
was completely against the stereotypical notion of the proper Italian female. She wanted to get
out of that culture and establish herself to be an independent woman.4 She was much educated
and she always wanted to break free from all the responsibilities that she would have to maintain
in the Italian life. The education she got always drove her to get away from all those
responsibilities of the Italian life and culture. She completely thought that this Italian life and
3 Iaia, Pietro Luigi. "Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in Migration Movies:
Pragmalinguistic Features, Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation Issues(2015): 61-68. Iaia, Pietro Luigi.
"Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in Migration Movies: Pragmalinguistic Features,
Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation Issues(2015): 61-68.
4 Collins, Jock. "Multiculturalism and immigrant integration in Australia." Canadian Ethnic Studies 45.3 (2013):
133-149.

3FILM HISTORY
culture was very much narrow-minded. Josie could not tolerate the people following the
traditional Italian culture.5
Earlier all the female in the Alibrandi family were driven by the will of the elders of the
family and the common notions being observed. Josie Alibrandi was to become the first female
of the family who wanted to decide the way to live her life in her own way. This completely
opposed the Italian life and culture and somewhat suited to the Australian life and culture to
some extent indeed. This rebelliousness of Josie and her dream to become an independent
woman in the Italian society is the most important issue in this film. In comparison to the Italian
way of life, the way of life in the Australian life and culture bound by the freedom of the people
gave her the boost to follow such a culture.6 She was completely embarrassed with the Italian life
and culture indeed. The hatred of Josie on the Italian community began to grow with time as she
realized how the community tended to humiliate her and her mother for being abandoned by her
father. Both of them did not have any faults.7
This became the main point for her being intolerant about the Italian culture. Rather she
decided to live her life as per the Australian culture driven by the freedom of the individuals. The
5 Prakrithi, H. N. "Multicultural Identity and Matters of Gender in Melina Marchetta’s Looking for
Alibrandi." Antipodes 30.1 (2016): 35-46.
6 Prakrithi, H. N. "Multicultural Identity and Matters of Gender in Melina Marchetta’s Looking for
Alibrandi." Antipodes 30.1 (2016): 35-46.
7 Ferdi, Ferdi. "Identity transformation of Josephine Alibrandi and John Barton in the Novel Looking for Alibrandi
(by Melina Marchetta)." Paradigma, Jurnal Kajian Budaya 3.2 (2016): 143-157.

4FILM HISTORY
fact of gossip about the Italian culture also irritated her a lot indeed. These are the main reasons
why she began to believe in the Australian society and lose faith in her own Italian culture.
Conclusion
The paper can be concluded by saying that the film Looking for Alibrandi had presented
the theme of multiculturalism in the best ways by portrayal of the character of Josie Alibrandi.
Her hatred against the Italian life and culture can be remarked as justified as she began to live
with freedom as per the opposing Australian life and culture.

5FILM HISTORY
Bibliography
Iaia, Pietro Luigi. "Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in Migration
Movies: Pragmalinguistic Features, Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation Issues(2015):
61-68. Iaia, Pietro Luigi. "Looking for Alibrandi." Analysing English as a Lingua Franca in
Migration Movies: Pragmalinguistic Features, Socio-cognitive Implications and Translation
Issues(2015): 61-68.
Prakrithi, H. N. "Multicultural Identity and Matters of Gender in Melina Marchetta’s Looking for
Alibrandi." Antipodes 30.1 (2016): 35-46.
Ferdi, Ferdi. "Identity transformation of Josephine Alibrandi and John Barton in the Novel
Looking for Alibrandi (by Melina Marchetta)." Paradigma, Jurnal Kajian Budaya 3.2 (2016):
143-157.
Collins, Jock. "Multiculturalism and immigrant integration in Australia." Canadian Ethnic
Studies 45.3 (2013): 133-149.
Armillei, Riccardo. "A multicultural Italy?." Cultural, Religious and Political Contestations.
Springer, Cham, 2015. 135-151.