Flirting

Flirting (1991) is an Australian coming-of-age drama to watch online at iFILM. Director John Duigan made it as a follow-up to The Year My Voice Broke (1987), revisiting the same protagonist — Danny Embling — now older and boarding at a strict 1965 New South Wales school.

Danny is quiet, bookish, perpetually out of step with the bullies in his dormitory. At a shared dinner with the neighbouring girls' school he meets Thandiwe Adjewa, a Ugandan exchange student who reads people faster than most adults do. Something clicks. It's the kind of connection that the rigid school calendar and the racial climate of the era both work hard to prevent.

Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton carry the film without a trace of sentimentality. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts appear in early supporting roles, years before either became a household name. Duigan keeps the tone clear-eyed — no delivered lesson, no tidy ending. Watch Flirting (1991) online at iFILM.