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A young woman is falsely imprisoned in a refugee detention centre in a TOPICAL NEW DRAMA
Including Australian refugee drama Stateless
IT’S A BUSY week for Cate Blanchett. As well as her role in new BBC2 drama Mrs America
(see page 6), the Oscar-winner can also be seen in hard-hitting Netflix series Stateless.
Co-created by Blanchett, the drama is set in an Australian detention centre and follows the perspectives of four characters, most notably Sofie Werner, played by The
Handmaid’s Tale’s Yvonne Strahovski. A flight attendant of German descent, Sofie suffers mental-health issues, and is teetering on the edge of a breakdown when she meets Pat and Gordon Masters (Blanchett and Dominic West), who run a cult-like dance therapy studio.
When Sofie quits her job in order to focus on self-improvement, she is unable to pay the studio’s fees and gets turfed out during a talent night (which sees Blanchett’s character perform a memorable rendition of the Frank Sinatra song Let’s Get Away from It All).
HELD CAPTIVE
Instead of coming to her aid, Sofie’s family take away her passport and close her bank account. Soon after, she is detained after providing authorities with a false identity and finds herself in a remote detention centre, alongside passportless refugees from around the world.
The six-part story is inspired by the real-life experiences of German-australian woman Cornelia Rau. In 2004, Rau was transported against her will to a detention centre. Authorities suspected she was an illegal immigrant and detained her for 10 months – in fact, she was an Australian resident who suffered from a mental illness.
The other major storylines focus on working-class father Cam Sandford (Suicide Squad’s Jai Courtney), who becomes a guard at the camp, and bureaucrat Clare Kowitz (Asher Keddie), who is under pressure to sort out a public-relations crisis when humanrights abuses are leaked to the press.
Meanwhile, Fayssal Bazzi plays asylum seeker Ameer, who ends up in the camp after escaping from Afghanistan with his family. Having used all his savings for a boat to Australia, his money is stolen by people smugglers and he gets separated from his wife and children.
SEARCH FOR SAFETY
‘Ameer was a teacher back home, but had to flee because of the Taliban,’ says Bazzi.‘he is just an ordinary man trying to reach for a better, safer life.’
It was shot near Adelaide, close to the site of a former detention centre, though the crew built a replica for filming purposes.
‘Adelaide is where a lot of refugees have been resettled, and most of the extras we
had on Stateless had at one point been in a detention centre or refugee camp around the world, says Bazzi.
‘On my first day on set, I was greeted by all the Afghan elders who performed a ceremony and welcomed me as their representative for this story. It was a beautiful experience to meet all these amazing people and hear their stories of survival.’