It is the election issue that has got the country divided and the upcoming release of Tomorrow When The War Began will not ease any concerns about border security. Based on the best-selling series of novels from John Marsden, the film sees a group of teenagers become guerilla soldiers after Australia is invaded by a foreign power. Writer/director Stuart Beattie was on the Gold Coast yesterday to promote the film and said although the books were published in the nineties, no one could have guessed border security would still be such a hot topic.
“It’s not refugees in the film, but the defense experts we talked to painted a very scary picture for us. It’s one of those things where we’re the beloved country, the lucky country where we’ve got so much and so many others have so little. We should be grateful and always remember that we have it better than anyone, we’ve never had a war on our own soil. If you take away anything politically from the film it’s that we’re so lucky and we should appreciate what we have, because we have so much.”
Although both the books and the film depict soldiers of Asian appearance, the invading country is never named and Beattie said `it’s not about who’s invading us’. “It’s about the main characters and what happens to them when their homes have been taken and their families have been locked up,” he said. “How do they react and how do they survive? That’s where the real drama is. And because they’re high schoolers to me it would feel inorganic to get into all that other stuff because teenagers would not be privy to the politics that’s going on. If I was making a film about the Prime Minister and his cabinet and a bunch of SAS soldiers then okay, we would need to say who this is because that’s what they would be talking about. But they’re teenagers trying to survive and the whole thing about the enemy is it doesn’t matter who they are, they’re here now and lets deal with it.”
Amid one of the battle scenes in the film, the key protagonist Ellie, played by Caitlin Stasey, comes across a mural of Captain Cook and the aborigines meeting for the first time. Beattie said the story of a country invading Australia and taking over the land might invoke comparisons to our nations history.
“I thought it was important to acknowledge that it’s not the first time this has happened,” he said. “Having Ellie acknowledge just for a second, amidst all this craziness, that she’s on the other foot now and look at that in a whole new light. I didn’t want to make it all about that, I just wanted it acknowledged.”
After the film’s Queensland premiere on Sunday at Jupiters Hotel and Casino for the Australian International Movie Convention, the stars and Beattie had the opportunity to relax on the coast and have breakfast together in Southport yesterday. Sydney-based actress Phoebe Tonkin, who plays the character of Fiona in the film, said being back on the coast was like coming home. Tonkin was based on the Gold Coast for three years where she played one of the main characters in children’s show H20: Just Add Water.
“I lived in Broadbeach for six months with the girls from the show and we trained at Southport pool, so it’s great to be back here,” she said. “I filmed at Warner Roadshow Studios and there were always big films coming into be made there because this is such a beautiful place to shoot. It looks great on camera and has all the locations.”
Tonkin and co-stars Caitlin Stasey, Linoln Lewis and Andy Ryan, along with Beattie, are now in Brisbane promoting the film. Although Beattie, who is based in L.A, said it was great to be able to spend some time back in Australia, what he was really excited about was the election.
“It’s so exciting to be here for that and to get to go into an election booth,” he said. “I haven’t been in the country for an election campaign in a long time. I’ve decided who I’m voting for, but I’m going to keep it under my hat.”