“Flathead” is an Australian docudrama peek into the country’s hidden-in-plain-sight underclass.

It takes its title from a popular fish Down Under, one of the foodstuffs we see processed, picked, packed and prepared by the migratory workers of many cultures, a job sector in crisis, an opening title tells us.

But it’s mainly about a lonely old man who has lived hard (addiction) and lost much (two children) and returned to Bundaberg, a small city skirting the east central coast of Queensland.

We see high-mileage, chain-smoking Cass Cumerford at the church dance, in the local pubs, catching up with old friends and connecting with evangelical new ones. And we see him naked, in bed alone, as alone as he was when he laid down for a CAT Scan.

Cass has come home for reasons he keeps to himself. Perhaps it’s his idea of his last stop, with some hope of atonement, forgiveness or what have you.

He is hopeful about an afterlife even as he’s sure heaven is divided into “bloody sections,” a point he debates with a religious zealot traveling the country in a Jesus slogans decorated van.

But writer-director Jaydon Martin’s film is less direct than that, more ethereal and of a-place-in-time snapshot variety. A tale told in vignettes that end with blackouts, some of them set to a cappella hymns, it’s “Vernon, Florida” without the wit.

We drift into those bars and churches, witness a brawl with a mob egging the brawlers on, see Cass denied entrance at one joint, and hang with a bunch of gun nut rubes given to making homophobic cracks about each other in lieu of giving a second thought to who and what they are and why they think and do what they do.

We meet a father-and-son who own and run the Busy Bee Fish Bar, and follow would-be physical fitness influencer son Andrew Wong — a college grad — as he goofily videos and narrates his exercise and diet regimen. We spy Andrew watching the ‘sordid-for-its-day 50s classic “Baby Doll” on the telly.

And we travel with him as he joins a social worker (I guess) who heads out to meet and greet Vietnamese, Thai and vegetable pickers from all over Asia in the lcoal fields.

“Andrew’s from China,” the social worker chirps.

“F—–g s–t,” Andrew protests in his best Bogan. “Aye wuz BORN in BundaBERG, you DORK!”

The lives themselves are interesting, even if we only get a glimpse of them, even Cass’s. But truth be told this never really ties the Cass story to the immigrant story (he did the same sort of work in his day, we surmise, and might be prejudiced) and never amounts to much more than a selection of snapshots, filmed in black and white, that humanize a whole class of people Australia is doing its best to ban, and is just beginning to discover the cost of its bigotry.

Rating: unrated, violence, profanity, slurs

Cast: Cass Cumerford, Andrew Wong, Rob Sheean, Hayden Rimmington and Kent Wong.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Jaydon Martin. An Indiepix streaming release.

Running time: 1:29