Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
1ST CUT
Feature Film - In Development
ROLE: Writer / Director / Producer
GENRE: crime / dramedy / coming-of-age
The revelation of a family secret life propels a schoolboy out of his coddled childhood and into the underworld, where he’s forced to choose the type of man he wants to become.
SYNOPSIS:
It’s the blue-collar steel town of Port Kembla in the 1990s. In a battered, fibro cottage we meet Willy who is waking up on his 18th birthday. Adulthood is about to land like a bomb on this sweet, sincere and compliant boy.
His mother is a tough, foul-mouthed Balinese woman in her mid 30s, who has battled to raise Willy on her own, working in construction and commercial cleaning. Dewi left Willy’s father to protect him from the perils of their lives as drug smugglers, and has channeled her fears into domineering parenting - keeping Willy on a short leash. But, a forged birthday card begins the fraying of the family secret.
This accelerates as Willy is stopped by a butch female detective on his way to school. Detective Coont has been in pursuit of Willy’s Dad and his crew for years, and with Willy now old enough to be approached by police she makes her move, playing on his naivety, digging for information, and challenging him to do the right thing.
With his world rocked, Willy confronts Dewi about her lies, then has his first alcoholic drink. And another. And another. Back in the family home, he sets fire to the forged birthday cards that he’s kept as token contact from his absent father. But, the flames accidentally spread to the curtains above the kitchen sink, and their home burns to the ground.
They have nothing left, but Dewi’s car. Willy is so hurt, by what he feels is his mother’s betrayal that he sets out into the world on his own.
