There's not a dusty outback vista or a craggy-faced old bloke in sight, but indie Australian film Pawno, which makes its world premiere at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival, might just be the quintessential modern Australian tale.
One of 81 Australian films at this year's festival, which launches Tuesday, and set and filmed entirely in Footscray in Melbourne's inner west, Pawno is a character-driven love story, following a day in the intersecting lives of 14 characters who work, live near and come into contact with a local, rundown, seedy pawnbroker shop. It's a comedy-drama as gritty and multicultural as the inner west itself.
It central characters include Les (veteran actor John Brumpton) the pawnbroker, his lackey Danny (screenwriter Damian Hill) and a couple of homeless mates, Pauly (Malcolm Kennard, most recently seen in Catching Milat) and Mark Coles Smith (also currently starring in Last Cab to Darwin).
The directorial debut from Scotland-born actor Paul Ireland features big names Kerry Armstrong and Tony Rickards alongside newcomers in a cast that includes Indigenous, Indian, African and Vietnamese actors.
"I've lived here for seven years and I find you very rarely see that multiculturalism on screen," says Ireland.
Too many Australian films, he says, suffer from trying to be "too Australian".
"The gangster thing, the outback thing – it gets a bit boring after a while," he says. "There's a tendency to make caricatures of people as quirky or a bit dumb – and we're not. Our characters are played real."
Many of the people in the film's street scenes are real; Ireland cajoled locals and passers-by to be extras.
"We'd buy them a pack of cigarettes or whatever. It kept with the feel of the film, and they're the real deal – you can't get as good as that from casting!"
Written by Hill, Pawno is also something of a love letter to Footscray – litter-strewn empty lots, rundown Asian takeaway joints and all.
"It's an area that's changing but it's still got a rawness to it; it's still quite rough. Even when we were filming there were a lot of drug deals going on, and people getting annoyed with us getting out cameras."
Filmed over four weeks and with no funding whatsoever, aside from $12,000 raised through crowdfunding, Pawno is yet to find a distributor, and many of its actors worked for partly deferred payment; if the film makes money, then they'll be paid an additional fee.
"That's the thing about film though; it's hard to make money," says Ireland.
After its world premiere at the festival in August, he hopes Pawno will also be selected for other prestigious film festivals.
"We've entered it into Venice and Toronto, and been shortlisted," he says. "People seem to be taking to it, which is nice."
Pawno screens as part of the 64th Melbourne International Film Festival, on August 5 and 9.
