Soaring property prices, rental stress, and intergenerational inequality are inspiring a wave of brutal and funny pop culture in Australia, from films and books to plays. These works explore the nightmare of the housing crisis, blending horror and humor to highlight the struggles of millennials and Gen Z.
Birthright: A Film About Homelessness and Parenthood
In the new Australian film Birthright, a young couple, Cory and Jasmine, face parenthood and homelessness simultaneously. Cory, a millennial, loses his job after a short-term contract, while Jasmine is on unpaid maternity leave. Forced to move in with Cory's reluctant baby boomer parents, Richard and Lyn, the couple experiences a tense power dynamic. Director Zoe Pepper says the idea emerged during the pandemic, as many young Australians swallowed their pride to return home. She notes that housing prices have nearly doubled in five years, creating a "uniquely ridiculous situation" akin to a Ponzi scheme.
Kill Your Boomers: A Darkly Comic Novel
Award-winning poet Fiona Wright's debut novel Kill Your Boomers follows Keira, a freelance writer turned au pair. Wright, who started writing around 2018, says the housing crisis has become starker, with friends in senior careers still living in "shitty sharehouses." In the novel, Keira's parents own a home in Dulwich Hill and lecture her about living within her means while buying a new Tesla. The title hints at darker ambitions, as an anthropomorphized hole in Keira's sharehouse kitchen encourages her to take action.
Other Works Exploring Housing Inequality
Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre staged a refreshed Pride & Prejudice billed as a "love story in a housing crisis." In Adelaide, James Watson's play The Housewarming explores a showdown between Gen Z haves and have-nots. Madeleine Gray's novel Chosen Family hinges on a parent's unexpected death leaving a property worth half a million dollars. Ellena Savage's The Ruiners follows a woman who inherits $50,000 from her estranged father, buying a crumbling house on a Greek island. Publishers note that while escapism may prevail in uncertain times, nonfiction works on housing and inheritance inequality are emerging.
Class and Entitlement in the Crisis
Both Birthright and Kill Your Boomers highlight class disparities. In Birthright, Jasmine's less affluent background draws a line between her and Cory, whose parents are "comfortable" but not "loaded." Pepper notes that wealthy parents are often happy to help their children, but the crisis will intensify class divisions. Wright says reader reactions range from "hard relate" to "she's insufferable," reflecting the complexity of the issue.
As the housing crisis worsens, audiences laugh harder at the dark satire. Birthright is now in Australian cinemas, and Kill Your Boomers is available from Hardie Grant.
