A Fagin first

By EMMA SUN
A FILM based on an Upwey author’s book will be showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival this Thursday.
Judith Sackville-O’Donnell’s book ‘The First Fagin – the true story of Ikey Solomon’ was published almost 10 years ago before being adapted into film by producer Alan Rosenthal.
The story follows the true story of Ikey Solomon, one of Australia’s most infamous convicts who was often thought to be the basis of Fagin, the landlord in ‘Oliver Twist’.
Ms Sackville-O’Donnell said she came up with the idea for the book during her time as an art teacher and seeing an artwork of Ikey’s son, and then another of Ikey’s wife.
“The art drew me and I just followed it from there,” she said.
“I started off writing a short article for the Jewish Historical Society magazine and it just grew from that.”
Her journey through the footsteps of Ikey led her to Hobart, directly to Van Diemen’s Land, where he originally set foot more than 150 years ago.
She found stacks of information in the archives, ranging from letters he wrote to reports on him in newspapers.
Ms Sackville-O’Donnell said she was drawn to Ikey’s story because of his complex character and his dedication to his wife and family, whom he risked it all for to see in Hobart.
“He was a mixture of good and bad but there was no evidence to prove he committed any crime in Van Diemen’s Land,” she said.
“When he came to Hobart after escaping from a jail in London, he got off the ship and because it was a convict colony all the convicts recognised him straightaway.
“Eventually he was sent back and my theory was his trial was the basis for Fagin’s trial at the Old Bailey in Oliver Twist.”
It took about seven years before the book was ready to be published and four years after, Ms Sackville-O’Donnell was contacted by Mr Rosenthal about making the book into a film.
She said she was very pleased to see the book come to life in a movie.
“I went down and talked to him and we discussed it and it just grew from there,” she said.
“I was really excited – I never would’ve thought a book I wrote would become a movie.”
The First Fagin will premier at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACME) this Thursday 16 August at 6.30pm.
It will also show at the Village Roadshow Theatrette in the State Library of Victoria on Friday 17 August at 9.30am.
Ms Sackville-O’Donnell will be at the premiere with her books.