by FilmInk Staff
With his new doco Sharko, Aussie director Luke Graham crafts a stunning portrait of his father, rugby league legend Mark Graham.
“When I was a kid, all I ever wanted to do was play rugby league just like my father,” says director Luke Graham. “He was the star player for the North Sydney Bears, and the captain of New Zealand Kiwis, and it felt like everyone, everywhere knew his name and was in awe of him. He wore the nickname Sharko with pride and he certainly lived up to it.”
Luke Graham may not have achieved his dreams of becoming a top-tier rugby league player, but he did produce one of Australia’s few films about the beloved sport in the highly impressive form of the tough and tender 2016 drama Broke, written and directed by Heath Davis. Luke Graham now makes his directorial debut with another rugby league related project, but this time one considerably closer to home. The documentary Sharko is a cinematic portrait of Mark Graham, one of the toughest men to ever lace on a boot. Yes, he was hard as nails, but behind the facade was a damaged man, with generational trauma, which has been passed down to the filmmaker himself. “Sharko is a universal story about a father, a son, generational patterns and family grief,” reads the press release. “It is also a very Australian story about how men were raised to be hyper-masculine, and the importance of sport, how it defines us as a nation.”
Sharko will premiere in cinemas in November. Stay tuned for more.
