“Sorry man, phone's been going crazy,” explains Heath Davis. The writer/director of Broke has had a full day of interviews and film premieres, just managing to squeeze us into his busy schedule.
“When you make a good film, everyone wants to talk to you. When you make a shit one, no one wants to talk to you at all.” There was good reason everyone wanted to talk to Davis. Broke is a phenomenal achievement.
The film follows the plight of a former NRL star as he tries to recover from the mess a gambling addiction has caused in his life. Growing up in Western Sydney Davis saw the effects of gambling on a number of players and friends. He thought there was a good story there, one with a social message. So he started to write a script.
“You'd go to the pub for the game and they would all be betting on it. Not just casually but massively. It was all part and parcel.” Although quintessentially Australian, Broke is a story that still strikes a chord world-wide, as it captivates critics and audiences on the festival circuit. “I've just come back from the UK and it's a massive problem there as well. Broke seems to resonate all over the world.”
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At times that sense of place is harshly realised, especially in terms of language. “A lot of the characters are influenced by people I grew up with. That was the vernacular, it was important to write accurately as I didn't want to sanitise anything. You write what you know, and it's nothing you wouldn't hear at the game.”
On the upside, this also results in Broke having a wonderful streak of dark humour. “When the chips are down you don't get too negative, you find a laugh somewhere. Aussies try to see the silver lining. If I made Broke for the government I'd be told – you can't have drama this funny - or comedy this dramatic. So we did a DIY approach and stuck to our guns.”
With a tiny budget (approximately $150,000), that DIY approach has achieved results. For his first full-length feature Davis has made a beautiful and moving film. “I've never had any money and my films have always looked good. I had a movie fall over in LA. That wasn't a massive budget movie (1-2 million AUD), but I saw where the money gets spent...and where it shouldn't get spent. A little ingenuity and the money can go far.”
Broke is screening at The Backlot on Tuesday, April 26, as part of The Australian Revelations line-up.
Originally published in X-Press Magazine
