Mr. Pip (2012)

Healesville Joel: Dolores Naimo

Photos 

Quotes 

• Dolores Naimo : That's a white man's name. No, Matilda, you heard wrong. Pop-Eye is the last white man around here. There's no others.

  Matilda Naimo : But Mr Watts says there is.

  Dolores Naimo : Hey, Leola!

  [in Papuan] 

  Dolores Naimo : You heard of some white man called Mr. Dickens around here?

  Leola : [in Papuan]  No, but I do know some Mr. Dickheads.

  [everybody laughs] 

  Leola : You see them everywhere!

  Dolores Naimo : [in Papuan]  Well, Matilda, if you see this Mr. Dickens, tell him to come fix our generator.

  Mrs. Kauona : [in Papuan]  And tell him he can stay at my place, if he's got some rice!

  Leola : [in Papuan]  What would you do with a white husband?

• Dolores Naimo : So he stole his mother's pork pie?

  Matilda Naimo : Pip's an orphan. He lives with his sister. Brought him up by hand.

  Dolores Naimo : Sounds like she needed to use her hand on him a little more.

• Dolores Naimo : I know you kids have been hearing some story from Mr Watts, but I'm here to tell you that stories have a job to do. They can't just lie around like lazybone dogs. They have to teach you something. That's why I brought a book... the Good Book.

  [holds up the Bible] 

  Dolores Naimo : When the missionaries came, they taught us to believe in God. But when we asked to see God, they wouldn't introduce him to us. So many people prefer to live by the wisdom of the crabs and the firefish that is shaped like the Southern Star. You must believe in something. 'God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.' There is no sentence more beautiful in the world than that one.

• Dolores Naimo : Do you believe in the Devil, Matilda?

  Matilda Naimo : Mr Watts says that the Devil is just a symbol, not living flesh.

  Dolores Naimo : Nor is his Pip.

  Matilda Naimo : But you can't hear the Devil's voice. You can hear Pip's.

  Dolores Naimo : That's it. You're not going back to the school anymore.

  Matilda Naimo : Why? So I can be dumb like you?

• Dolores Naimo : My daughter, my lovely Matilda, says she doesn't believe in the Devil. She believes in Pip!

  Mr. Watts : Well, Mrs. Naimo, what if I were to say to you that on the page, Pip and the Devil have the same status? Each one strikes out on their own, each one has the chance to make their own mistakes...

  Dolores Naimo : And to abandon his family? How will Pip even know if he's made a mistake? If there is no God and no Devil, how will he know what's right from wrong?

  [addressing kids in schoolroom] 

  Dolores Naimo : Mr Watts here thinks he can know all things, but for the rest of us people - and that includes you, my beautiful flower, Matilda - pack the teaching of the Good Book into your person. That way, you kids will be able to save Pop-Eye here, because I'm not going to.

  Mr. Watts : Thank you, Mrs. Naimo, for such an illuminating lesson on the relationship between good and evil. Once again, you've given us much food for thought.