Short and confronting
Image: Mud Crab. Image: film still
By MARTIN FABINYI
Mud Crab is a film on the edge with a visceral power and is showing as part of this year’s Flickerfest.
The film makes the viewer a voyeur, witnessing, through the eyes of a woman as she recounts the traumatic assault of a young man by a gang of skinheads. Talented director/writer, David Robinson-Smith, made this as his AFTRS graduate film.
Lead actor, Joshua Mehmet, gained and lost 30kg for the role. It also features, albeit briefly, writer and artist Lanneikka Denne. She is the viewer, and it is her voiceover that we hear. Robinson-Smith says: ‘I first saw Laneikka perform in her acting class when she was 17. I was there to see Joshua perform a scene and Laneikka completely blew me away. Her character was written for her to perform.”
The director says this film is based on five or six people he knew, including a cousin who killed himself.
“I was inspired by many real-life stories of friends and family members who struggled to live their lives uninhibited in the area [Toukley, NSW] Some stories ended tragically, and others were able to make changes and break out of the mentality. In the film I tried to offer a glimpse of the mentality but not the result of how the character would deal with the situation.”
“I witnessed an incredible amount of violence at the time; myself and friends being assaulted and chased through the streets more times than I remember. Joshua and I were once witnesses in a horrendous bottling incident as well. The local club everyone would drink at, The Beachcomber, was at the time one of two venues in New South Wales that was a Level 1 Violent Venue.”
Mud Crab premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was also screened at the 2022 Raindance Film Festival which showcases features and shorts by filmmakers from around the world to an audience of film executives and buyers, journalists, film fans and filmmakers.
