New Australian series Thou Shalt Not Steal, with three of its eight episodes premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, cleverly tells an Aboriginal story with humor and dozens of instantly recognizable Australian stereotypes. It’s a fun road trip that will tell you.
It will be packaged as eight half-hour episodes and will be uploaded to Australian streamer Stan on October 17th. International rights are handled by DCD Rights.
Told through the eyes of a young Aboriginal female delinquent (Robin, played by Heartbreak High star Sherrie-Lee Watson), Thou Shall Not Steal is a nod to 1980s toxic masculinity, functional An homage to alcoholics, Barbie doll snags, and the quiet wisdom of the outback and indigenous peoples.
But it’s a fun, charming ride in which Robin and a clumsy white teenager (played by fellow “Heartbreak” star Will MacDonald) flee a small community in the central desert in a stolen taxi cab. After them, and sometimes before them, there is a serpent-like former prostitute and the boy’s domineering father, a deceitful preacher. The older pair are played with glee by Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones) and Miranda Otto (The Clearing, Talk to Me). .
Director Dylan River said the story was born from what he saw around him growing up in Alice Springs, but with an 80s twist.
“Originally it came from a series I made for SBS called ‘Lobby Hood’ and I was thinking, how can I keep that tone and make it a little bit longer? I didn’t want to,” River told Variety. “It was a way to[make it different]by taking the setting back to the 1980s, and we’ve got some cool muscle cars. It was also an opportunity to move away from cell phones and modern story structures. When it comes to storytelling, cell phones are subject to a bit of scrutiny.”
River, the son of Warwick Thornton and producer Penelope Macdonald, is Australian film royalty and previously directed Mystery Road: Origins. But clearly his environment is rich with history and film opportunities. He told Variety that the story came from a “place of trauma.”
“I want to tell familiar stories, stories that relate to me,” River says. “And like all of my work, this one is true.”
River was born in 1992, but grew up hearing stories about the ’80s through her family and felt an affinity for that generation.
“My father was very young when he had me, a teenager in the 80s, and all my uncles and aunts would talk to me at family dinners and pubs about what they used to do. “And I wish I could have been there at that time,” he says. Especially in Central Australia, it was a very lawless space. It’s fun, often illegal, but exciting. ”
Provided by Toronto IFF
In a manner typical of the Australian television production environment, developing the script was a slow process at first, then a flurry of activity.
“During the coronavirus lockdown, I wrote a 300-page article about Robin, who met young Gidge and went on a road trip between Alice Springs and Adelaide. I always thought I was going to meet a white father living somewhere in the United States. The treatment is different than the final result, but I definitely got all the locations, characters, and episode structure on the page.” he says. The next two years were spent working closely with the show’s co-writer, co-creator and EP Tanith Glyn Maloney (The Windcatcher, Finding Jeddah). “I tried to include people older than me, people who could add a female perspective to the world that I was observing,” River says.
Once the program found backers in the public and private sectors, the process suddenly moved forward.
“The first two episodes had been scripted. The content had changed, but they had been written and we had an outline for the first six episodes. When we got the funding, there was a complication. We got the green light, two scripts, a date. Looking back, it took us six months to write the first two episodes, and four months to write the next six. You can’t beat the energy that something creates.”
The 1980s setting and the protagonist’s escape from juvenile detention bring the story closer to Australia’s shameful “Stolen Children” era (approximately 1900 to 1970). At the time, federal, state, and church authorities forced Aboriginal and mixed-race people to assimilate, often by removing their children. From their families. But River intentionally approaches the subject with humor, larger-than-life characters, and an instantly recognizable setting.
“This (show) has a lot of similar themes to other films made in Australia, but the comedic approach makes it more approachable to a wider audience,” he says. “Many important films have been made in Australia, and in many cases this message is played to people who already resonate with the message, who love the film and admire the film. But converts If you’re preaching to people, how are you educating the Australian public?I hope people who don’t normally watch Aboriginal dramas will watch it because it’s a comedy. They’ll find humor in cars, road trips.
River added: I hope there are twists and turns that people don’t expect. But it was very intentional and I was like, let’s have fun. ”
River’s argument is that once hooked, viewers will keep watching.
“We screened three episodes in Toronto, and those were the set-up (segments) to really launch the story in the next five episodes,” he says. “And the reaction was really good. People laughed and applauded.”
The series is produced by Rude Studios and executive produced by Charlie Aspinwall, Daley Pearson (Bluey, Robbie Hood) and Sophie Miller (Family Law), with Rude Studio producer Sam Moore (Bluey) is working with Shins. 1788 Production. Kyla Scobee and Donna Chan will serve as executive producers for Stan. Thou Shalt Not Steal received major production investment from Screen Australia, with support from the South Australian Film Corporation, Screen Territories and a Post Digital Visual Effects (PDV) grant from Screen Queensland. Ta.
