by FilmInk Staff
For a lot of people, this was a time of uncertainty and fear, but WA filmmakers, Director Nick Petkov and Producer Morgan Munro, did not let this stop them from producing their debut feature film.
Painkiller follows the story of Steven Sullivan (G Roberts), a man fed up with his mundane office worker life, who turns to dangerous and risky thrills in an attempt to garner more excitement in his life, but soon ends up spiralling down a dark path to violence, tragedy and murder.
The film explores themes of isolation, emotional need and the dark places people with mental illnesses go to when they feel they have nothing to lose. “It’s about a person who believes that society is against him and acts accordingly despite that not necessarily being the case,” says Petkov.
With the film, Petkov wanted to address what he sees as the salient social issues of our time, particularly mental health and domestic violence and the lack of support and understanding surrounding these.
Painkiller takes the audience on a disturbing, and at times, surreal ride, charting Steven’s fall from grace, increasing isolation and fracturing personality. The film was privately funded and took three months to shoot, filming around Western Australia’s capital city and urban locations.
Local businesses stepped in to support the film, including the iconic Tradewinds Hotel.
Auditions were called for actors all over the country, but due to border closures at the time, the production could only cast talent from their home state.
Painkiller had its premiere at the WA Made Film Festival, in February 2023, and has since been selected for a dozen international film festivals around the world. Cinematographer Michael Thomas won an Australian Cinematographers Society – Bronze Award for his stark and evocative cinematography.
Painkiller has also signed an international distribution deal with Bounty Films and is in talks with major networks around the country.
Petkov and Munro (right and left below, respectively) have worked together before on a short film entitled Aerial and are currently working on their next feature film project. “We learned a lot from the production and the cast and crew were great to work with,” said Munro.
