Building Bridges

Build a bridge, and get over it... Melbourne, 1970. Arnold is a first year resident at the Royal. It is a year of bridging: from medical student to doctor, child to adult, from mindless obedience to independent thought. Working endless hours in a hospital that seems to value tradition over competence, Arnold and his fellow residents comically bumble along. The only constant are his nightmares: a phobia of police. Despite his fears, it is Arnold who breathlessly calls the police to say he witnessed Petr stab Greg outside the hospital. Greg is a fellow resident doctor and Arnold's closest friend while Petr is a recently arrived immigrant working on the construction of the Westgate Bridge. So what brings these two seemingly unconnected men together in such a dramatic way? In this dark yet comic tale of coming of age we meet those born in the aftermath of the Holocaust, self-absorbed and ignorant of the shadow it casts over their lives. There are many bridges to be crossed that year. But not all of them will remain standing.