By Travis Johnson
The trailer for Abe Forsythe’s Down Under is here, and by the looks of it it’s either going to be very funny or it’s going to make a lot of people very angry. Probably both.
Set in the aftermath of the Cronulla Riots, Down Under sees two groups of hotheads crash into each other, with alarming and comedic results. On the one side a group of Lakemba lads are heading out on a “retaliation mission” in the wake of the riots, dragging with them the studious Hassim (Lincoln Younes), who really would rather not, if it’s all the same to you. On the other, Cronulla local Jason (Damon Herriman) is out on “patrol”, looking for any brown-skinned threats to his cherished way of life. A clash is inevitable, and it promises to be shocking, confronting, and hilarious.
Speaking to the Sydney Film Festival, Forsythe said, “All my favourite comedies are tragedies and what happened to our national identity on the day of the Cronulla riots was a tragedy. I can’t wait for people to follow the characters and the world my cast and crew have helped me build. It’s not that different from the world we currently live in.”
Down Under screens as part of the Sydney Film Festival. For info and tickets, head to the official festival site.
