I LOVE SARAH JANE Director Spencer Susser Making Feature Debut With HESHER

As anyone who has been paying any sort of attention can tell you, Australia is undergoing a major boom in film production right now - particularly smart, high concept genre film.  And the most visible leaders of this wave are the young talents behind Blue Tongue Films, the collective that includes Nash and Joel Edgerton, David Michod and Spenser Susser, all of whom have made huge international waves in the past few years.

 

Susser became a huge favorite in these parts thanks to his brilliant zombie short I Love Sarah Jane - a film I personally, and very happily, programmed at a fistful of festivals after it took a bow at Sundance.  Susser proved with that film that he is a truly unique voice, one capable of neatly balancing out character and genre concerns to create something fresh.  And now he's making a feature.

 

Titled Hesher the film boasts a cast of Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Rainn Wilson and is now in post.  Story?

 

TJ Forney is 13-years-old. Two months ago his mother was killed in an accident, so he and his broken dad, Paul, move in with TJ's grandmother to pick up the pieces. Hesher is a loner. He hates the world and everyone in it. He has long greasy hair, a baby moustache, a Metallica t-shirt and homemade tattoos. He is malnourished and smokes a lot of cigarettes. He likes to get into fights, start fires and blow things up. He lives in his van...until he meets TJ. HESHER is the story of a family struggling to deal with a loss and the anarchist head banger who helps them do it.  

 

Take a look at I Love Sarah Jane below to see why this is a big deal!