Abe Forsythe is onstage, his extensive ensemble cast around him, introducing his darkly hilarious featureDown Under.
He’s not here to mess around, either. “A lot of exhibitors don’t want you to see this,” Forsythe bluntly tells the room.
He’s chosen a controversial topic – racism – and set the film in the aftermath of the infamous Cronulla riots, which happened just over a decade ago. The film opens with actual footage from that ugly, violent day and it’s a disturbing reminder of how serious this issue was and continues to be.
“The climate we find ourselves in now, it’s more relevant than ever,” he says at the screening of a film he wrote six years ago and polished over the space of ten drafts.
Bearing in mind the thorny nature of the topic, it’s perhaps an even greater feat that he, along with his multicultural cast, has created one of the funniest, most relentlessly laugh-out-loud films in recent memory. But, given how well the film was received when it made its world premiere back in June at the Sydney Film Festival, what does he mean that some exhibitors don’t want us seeing it?
We’re now 35 floors up and Forysthe has swapped the suit from the gala with the obligatory film director baseball cap for a full day of media in a hotel conference room. Rather than again being flanked by his entire cast, he just has leading man Lincoln Younes with him.
“There are a lot [of exhibitors] that really are backing us, but then we have some key ones that have said there’s no audience for this movie, it shouldn’t have been made and that it’s morally reprehensible,” says Forsythe. “What I’ve found out is that some people can’t tell the difference between a movie that portrays morally reprehensible behaviour and a movie that endorses that behaviour, because this movie condemns that behaviour. But some people just see ‘offensive behaviour’ and can’t see the difference.
“But if I’m facing opposition from people that feel like nobody should see this movie, then what hope does anyone have releasing an Australian movie? … I was expecting it would polarise in one respect but what I don’t understand is, you can not like something but you can at least appreciate that it’s been made for an audience is significant enough because of the time we live in and the message that it conveys.”
While the film might have a few opponents, it is certainly whipping up its fair share of support online. “In the last 24 hours we’ve had hundreds of thousands of [hits] on our Facebook page to view our trailer and lots of people tagging their friends, saying, ‘We’ve got to see this’, and interestingly, a lot of Middle Eastern and Asian people are saying it looks hilarious. So to reach an audience like that with an Australian film is hard at the best of times,” says Forsythe.
Younes, who will be familiar to viewers of Home And Away and Love Child, relished the opportunity to play Hassim, one of the Muslim characters. “The script – I’d never read anything like it. I thought it was flawless,” he says. “I’d always wanted to work with Abe and for me, you’re very fortunate if you can do any job in this industry, but to have a role that has a lot of importance and is topical and speaks to you and has the propensity to change how society might look at things: it’s kind of a dream role.” Here’s hoping they can continue to enjoy a dream run with it as well.
Down Under is in cinemas now.
