review for Careful, He Might Hear You on AllMovie

This little-known Australian movie may be one of the most brutally authentic portraits of childhood ever put on film. It's filmed by director Carl Schultz from the point of view of a six-year-old boy whose father has left and whose mother has died. His mother's two sisters, one wealthy and the other working-class, battle for custody, and eventually his father returns and joins the fray. For a change, full use is made of the acting talents of Geraldine Chaplin, who plays the mother whose love haunts and sustains her child. Never has a movie so lucidly depicted how a child becomes a victim of adults. Set in Depression-era Australia, Careful, He Might Hear You also has a rich sense of social issues as a backdrop for its depressing but riveting story of emotional abuse. Based on a novel by Sumner Locke Elliott, it's a unique and powerful work that was named best picture of the year by the Australian Film Institute.