The Brutal Alchemy of Water

Erzi decides to become a professional musician, but his mother’s history of rejection may ultimately pull them apart.

In 1940, as ever more countries lined up on either side of burgeoning global conflict, Italian migrant families in Australia were forcibly separated. While the men were rounded up and imprisoned in internment camps, the women were left to carry on alone in isolated pockets of community in suburbs like Carlton. Having little more than one another for company and the generations of tradition they had brought with them, these trailblazers would go on to transform the country they made home. In the wave of immigration that followed the end of World War II, Italian women were once again at the forefront of rebuilding the lives of their families. In the process, they left a lasting influence on Australian culture, permeating the realms of fashion, business, community leadership and more.

Set in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, MUTT follows Odette Harker as she comes to terms with her first pregnancy. She had a rough upbringing, and she now looks to her conservative in-laws for guidance on parenting. But when a robbery occurs at the family’s building company, the couple’s dog Barney goes missing as well. Dog fighting is prominent in the area, so Odette secretly goes against the families wishes, to infiltrate the dangerous underground world to save her dog from a torturous death.

Lives change when a homeless woman, in desperate search of a better life, meets a social worker with troubles of her own.