Comedy Has Australians Thinking Seriously About Immigrants
April 9, 2000
Steve Karamitsis, the Greek-Australian protagonist in a surprise hit movie called The Wog Boy, has an image problem. Suddenly thrust into the role of welfare-to-work poster boy, he arrives at the photo shoot wearing his usual black T-shirt, black jeans and black boots.
Not ethnic enough to appeal to the immigrant community, the government image-makers complain. He changes into a gyro-server’s grungy garb, a knotted kerchief atop his head.
Too specific, they say. He returns wearing a white Greek folk-dancing skirt, tights and slippers, teamed with a safari jacket and black bush hat. “Who am I supposed to be, Zorba Dundee?” he asks.
The Wog Boy - a romantic comedy that questions immigrants’ place in Australian society - has touched a nerve in a country where almost one in four residents is foreign-born, and where about 16 percent of the population speaks a language other than English at home.
