ACTF

A coming-of-age adventure about two best friends, Tomias and Dahlia, growing up together on Country, dealing with the dreams and challenges of childhood in a remote Northern Territory community.

Barrumbi Kids

Ambience Entertainment and Tamarind Tree Pictures, 2022

Tomias and Dahlia, Fire Hawk and Crow, have been best friends since forever, growing up together in Mandjarkkorl - FireTree town - a remote Top End community on the edge of Arnhem Land.

Life in Mandjakkorl is never dull for these kids: with crazy cracker nights, lost treasure, huge grass fires, initiation ceremonies, feral chooks, ancestral spirits, outsiders trying to change things and of course, big salty crocs! In short, a whole outback of adventure and sometimes trouble, not that they go looking for trouble…it sort of manages to find them!

Now in their final year of primary school, Tomias and Dahlia know that change is coming and whether they like it or not, they’ll both find themselves torn between loyalty to each other and the growing demands of the outside world.

In this unique and vibrant Australian setting, Barrumbi Kids explores the universal themes of friendship and change, the weight of expectations, of home and culture, and the age-old problem of battling a giant salty that’s moved into your favourite swimming hole.

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Episodes

Episode 1 The Burnoff

After ditching school, best friends Tomias and Dahlia have no choice but to fight fire with fire.

Episode 2 Gordon's Boat

Three's a crowd when Gordon, the new kid in town, comes between Tomias and Dahlia.

Episode 3 Big Barra Bonanza

Tomias and Dahlia ditch Lizzie and set out to catch the prize barramundi but a hungry saltwater crocodile has other ideas.

Episode 4 Actual Reality

While out on-country, doing a VR film shoot Tomias, Dahlia and Gordon soon find actual reality colliding with virtual reality when things don’t go to plan and they find themselves stranded.

Episode 5 The Festival

With the Mandjarkkorl Festival fast approaching, Tomias and Dahlia just want to practice their new dance routine, but Tomias’s cultural responsibilities and Dahlia’s family responsibilities pull them in different directions. They both soon realise that getting what they want doesn't feel as satisfying when it comes at a cost to others.

Episode 6 Cracker Night

When Tomias and Dahlia find a box of crackers and decide not to hand them in things quickly get out of hand. Now Tomias and Dahlia must find a way to get Mandjakkorl's Cracker Night uncancelled and prove that they aren’t bad for each other.

Episode 7 Speech Comp

When Dahlia and Tomias pick the same topic for a school speech competition, their research leads them on a treasure hunt, revealing Dahlia's deeper connections to Mandjakkorl but also some great potential danger.

Episode 8 Transitions

When Tomias loses his cousin straight after he arrives back home for initiation ceremony, it fuels his own anxieties around boarding school, whilst Dahlia confronts her own purpose in Mandjakkorl.

Episode 9 Free Range

When Tomias gets offered a place in a Melbourne Boarding School, he doesn’t know how to tell Dahlia, deciding instead to hide it from her, whilst the kids’ band together to free the town chickens, now locked up by Armstrong, an act that will be his undoing.