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Growing up in her parents’ German-Austrian restaurant in Cabramatta, Romy Konigseder would fold napkins, clear plates and fall asleep on bags of flour in the storeroom. When she turned 21 and decided not to take over the family business, her German-Austrian dad was disappointed, although her Hong Kong Chinese mum understood.
Now, the LA-based producer, who works on major events such as the Grammy and Billboard awards, has honoured her childhood memories with Flower and Flour, a joyous animation about the everyday adventures of a seven-year-old girl called Flower in a Western Sydney restaurant, and her imaginary flour-bag cat, Flour.
“We all know those families where their kid sits in the restaurant, or at the newsagent, up the back, and they’re helping where they can, or they’re doing their homework late into the night,” says Konigseder, who consulted on the series that was created and directed by her husband, Dan Mansour. “That’s the reality of day-to-day life in a family-run business, but you try to find entertainment where you can, in a very adult world.”
Konigseder and Mansour were raised, unbeknown to one another, in the same neighbourhood, and were sweethearts from the age of 16. Mansour, who has a Lebanese-born dad and a Latvian-born mum, remembers visiting the “Austrian chalet” as a child.
“Growing up in a multicultural world, all our mates were of different ethnicities,” says Mansour, whose work includes Fuzz and Jalapena and Bushwhacked. “So that was the inspiration for [the series], as was Romy’s upbringing at the restaurant, and all the antics she got up to.”
Aside from the magical element of a mischievous – and “leaky” – cat made of flour, the storylines of the 39 seven-minute episodes are rooted in realism: children painting a mural, chasing a runaway robot duck, setting up a boba tea stall.
“There is so much fun in the everyday,” says Mansour. “We’re embracing that and, seeing that spark and wonder that kids have over normal things. Other shows will go off into these imaginative, mythical spaces. But we’ve already got all that around us.”
The series touches on tougher topics, such as dementia, from which both filmmakers’ fathers suffer.
“One of the elderly gentlemen in the series runs a fruit and veg store,” Mansour explains. “His wife has passed away, and it’s his wedding anniversary, and he’s starting to forget her. So the kids throw a party to help him remember … If it wasn’t for something like Bluey, it may have been harder to get an episode like that across the line because it is dealing with real-life experiences.”
Comedian Lawrence Leung is on the writing team, and the adult voice cast includes Nazeem Hussain, Rob Shehadie, Simone Kessell and Angela Tran. The filmmakers’ children, aged six and 18 months, are also involved.
“Our [six-year-old] daughter is a tough, tough test audience,” says Konigseder. “And she’s picked up an old-lady Cantonese saying [from the series], which means ‘you have no respect’, and uses it every now and again. It’s such a funny phrase for a little girl to say.”
Adds Mansour: “That ties back into the idea of kids being invested in their family’s business, and celebrating both parents working. I’ve used her ideas, and we take her advice on board.”
Although distinctly Australian, Flower and Flour, which is concurrently launching in Canada, could be any multicultural community, anywhere in the world.
“Staying true to the Western Sydney background was important,” says Mansour. “But while you may have a certain language or accents, the rest of it is universal because working-class areas, with lots of immigrants, exist in every city. And they’re all getting gentrified, so that’s why we’ve got a hipster cafe [in the series].”
Konigseder’s mum declined to audition for the character on which she is based, but she is “chuffed” the family business lives on.
“There are lots of elements inside the restaurant that spark a lot of memories,” says Konigseder. “It’s very surreal.”
