In the 1980s and 1990s a wave of murders bloodied the idyllic coastline of Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
There were 80 murders, 30 unsolved cases and thousands of assaults. The victims: young homosexual men.
Linsten Morris Managements Noah Taylor (Game of Thrones, Almost Famous) returned to Australia this year to help bring these events of the past to life in DEEP WATER, the compelling Australian drama series for the SBS.
The fictional version of Deep Water opens with the death in Bondi of a young man, horribly mutilated.Director Shaun Seet and AACTA Award-winning production designer Flicity Abbott told SBS how they wanted to portray Bondi as a character, because it really is a major player as a character in the mini-series” . “We wanted to focus on the multicultural aspect of Bondi as opposed to the gentrified, renovated end of the suburb. We were looking for the texture, the culture, the grit, the depth, so all our locations are carefully chosen to portray the different cultures that make up Bondi, not just the white middle class culture of the eastern suburbs,” Felicity said. “It becomes a very different character at night.”
The Blackfella Films production aired alongside a feature-length documentary and an interactive, immersive online and social media experience with major production investment from Screen Australia. Screen NSW was a partner for the drama, and marks the first time Screen Australia has funded a drama and documentary on the same subject matter airing at the same time.
Noah stars alongside Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black) as detective Nick Manning, a long-serving detective on the Bondi force, who knows his way around the local area – whether that means knowing how to talk to witnesses or deal with superiors in his department. Competent, confident and wary of newcomers. He wants to solve this case as much as his partner Tori does (Yael Stone), but ideally, without destroying his career.
Noah Taylor is joined by an all star Australian cast, including Linsten Morris Management’s Ben Oxenbould (The Kettering Incident, The Code) and John Brumpton (Catching Milat, PAWNO). The cast also features William McInnes (The Slap, Blue Heelers), Danielle Cormack (Wentworth, Underbelly), Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Puberty Blues, Sea Patrol), Craig McLachlan (The Doctor Blake Mysteries), and Dan Spielman (The Code, Accidental Soldier).
Deep Water’s contemporised version of these events is a vital connection between the past and the present, in a year which saw the worst mass shooting in US history specifically target LGBTQIA people. DEEP WATER is an essential reminder that Australia has its own dark history with which to contend. Be sure to catch up on Deep Water’s on SBS .