By Erin Free
Worth: $19.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mark Graham, Luke Graham, Wally Lewis, Paul Vautin, Steve Roach
Intro:
A deeply affecting, profoundly moving, richly personal, and beautifully made meditation on father-son love, the power of family connection, and the long shadow cast by the greatest Kiwi rugby league player of all time.
The big, bold, bruising sport of rugby league has long been populated by larger-than-life characters all deserving of their own feature documentaries. One of the game’s most compelling and somewhat unsung figures is unquestionably Mark Graham, a gifted athlete and great attacking player with a staggeringly high threshold for pain who plied his bone-jarring trade in the 1980s, when rugby league was at its most dangerous and brutally physical. The fact that Mark Graham is a Kiwi is likely the reason that he is not celebrated in this country with the real vigour that his on-field exploits deserve. The man also known as Sharko finally gets his due with this eponymous doco, which is helmed by his son, Luke Graham, making his directorial debut after producing the powerful 2016 rugby league-themed drama, Broke.
A sensitive, highly engaging presence in the film himself, Luke Graham is not interested in just creating a talking-heads celebration of his father, though the doco has that in spades, with a host of a-grade raconteurs (including league legends like Wally Lewis, Paul Vautin and Steve Roach, and astute commentators like Dean Ritchie) all delivering their highly individualistic takes on Mark Graham, the man who really introduced the world to New Zealand rugby league when he crossed the ditch to pull on the famed black-and-red of The North Sydney Bears. The real lynchpin relationship, however, is Mark Graham’s longtime friendship with his coach, Graham Lowe. Much more than just master and apprentice, the duo’s friendship is based very much on mutual respect, and is truly moving to witness.
Though a suitably skin-splitting and rollicking look at rugby league in the wild-and-crazy1980s, Sharko has another, considerably more poignant agenda. This poetically shot and edited doco is also the story of Luke’s often difficult relationship with his father; though the doting son idolised his father when he was a young boy, the demands of rugby league meant that Mark Graham was away from his family from very long periods, creating something of a hole in the father-son relationship. This is touchingly dealt with in the film, as is a family tragedy which instantly minimises all of the knocks that Mark Graham took on the footy field. Sharko is a deeply affecting, profoundly moving, richly personal, and beautifully made meditation on father-son love, the power of family connection, and the long shadow cast by the greatest Kiwi rugby league player of all time.
Sharko screens at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney on 26 November 2024, tix here.
