STACK #198 Apr 2021

FILM FEATURE

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STACK chats with Eric Bana about the scorching newAustralian mystery-thriller, The Dry . Words Gill Pringle DARK REUNION

that Gretchen is representative of the life that he left,” he adds, referring to the character played by Irish-Australian actress Genevieve O’Reilly. “She could have left and gone to the city, but she stayed and has tried to make the most of her life in that town, and there’s a beautiful relationship between the two of them, which really attracted me when I read the book. “So, I think it’s something that all people relate to and also this notion that we don’t truly move forward until we’ve dealt with the things that have happened in our past. And the dual narratives we have with this story, with the young characters and with ourselves, it’s emotionally really wonderful.” Filmed at locations in the Wimmera region of Victoria, about a four-and-a-half hour drive outside Melbourne, Bana says he had such a great experience and wishes he could work more in Australian films. “If you look at the quality of writing on Romulus, My Father and The Dry , you’ll see they don’t grow on trees in any country. I’m not at all surprised that it took that long to find something, because this is a really hard project to find; projects of this quality, original pieces of work that are adult, that are sophisticated, that have characters in them that every actor wants to be a part of. “My friendship with Robert began on Romulus, My Father and we had such affection for that film and the way that it played out with Australians. So, yeah, I’d love to do more.” 25 -year-old Joe Klocek couldn’t believe his luck when he landed his first film role portraying the younger version of Eric Bana’s character, Aaron Falk, in The Dry . “I was so honoured that people thought I looked enough like Eric,” the Brisbane-based actor tells STACK . “I mean, every young man wants to be told they look like Eric Bana! “ The Dry is a big deal for Australia and I wanted to get it absolutely right,” says Klocek, recalling how he went to Bana for advice. “He told me not to worry about mimicking him but to go with my instincts and view the younger and older versions of Aaron Falk as two separate characters. He really gave me free reign.”

M elbourne-based filmmaker Robert Connolly, whose movies include the box-office hit Paper Planes (2014) and award-winning drama Balibo (2009), brings Jane Harper’s best-selling crime-thriller, The Dry , to the screen with Eric Bana in the lead and an extraordinary cast of homegrown talent onboard. Marking Bana’s first Aussie film in 12 years – he last collaborated with Connolly on Romulus, My Father – the actor thanks his wife, Rebecca Gleeson, for introducing him to Harper’s book. “She’s always a couple of steps ahead of me,” he tells STACK . “She’d read the book, along with a bunch of her friends, and loved it, and told me that I should read it because it was most likely one day going to be turned into a film.” Having shared office space with Connolly in Melbourne for the past ten years, Bana had no idea that his friend would be the person tasked

with turning it into a film until they caught up over lunch and the actor expressed his enthusiasm. Bana plays Aaron Falk, a federal agent who left his hometown – the drought-stricken rural community of Kiewarra – over 20 years ago, reluctantly returning for the funeral of his childhood friend and subsequently becoming involved in a decades-old unsolved crime. The actor believed The Dry ’s themes of coming home and how difficult that might be are central to the story. “I think it’s something everyone can relate to. I love the notion of this school reunion that no one wants to return to and, to me, that’s how it felt with Aaron. It felt like he’s going back to his past, but he’s forced to go back; he doesn’t really want to be there for many reasons.” Ask Bana if he’s ever attended a high school reunion of his own, and he laughs. “They don’t appeal to me. I went to one and I’ve actually kept in touch with a few very dear

school friends, so I feel like I’ve got my gang and I don’t need to increase the numbers. “But I think a lot of people can relate to that and I think

• The Dry is out on April 14

22 APRIL 2021

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