Lucky Miles

The film began as a response to 'The Lexus & The Olive Tree' by Thomas Friedman, the New York Times writer responsible for defining globalisation for much of the West, and took its form and inspiration from several true stories, played out on the remote coastline of Western Australia between the years 1989-1992.

According to the film's production notes, this project was motivated by the belief the future is being shaped by the forces of globalisation - undocumented immigration, refugees and the ensuing government policies are only part of this mix. Not since the 1930s has there been such a period of dynamic and encompassing change and World Trade agreements, the rise of Multinationals, Iraq oil-wars, the burgeoning of fundamentalism are all best understood through the prism of globalisation and the frictions, voids and opportunities it creates between individuals and nations.

This desert buddy movie was inspired by several stories director and co-screenwriter Michael Rowland first heard when he visited the Pilbara region of Western Australia (WA) during the late 1980s. These were true stories of 'boat people' landing on the remote WA coastline in the hope of starting a new life, quickly running into trouble as they set out into some of the harshest and least populated country of Australia.

In March 2000, director-producer-co-screenwriter Michael Rowland began researching several 'boat people' stories through news archives with the aim of developing this picture. Several of these stories involving different nationalities which had been reported during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Journalists he talked to openly lamented they hadn't happened today and back then they were only good for page nine.

Co-screenwriters Helen Barnes and Michael Rowland worked on the first two drafts together specifically focusing on the exploration of innovative and cost-effective techniques to introduce and identify the people smugglers as Indonesian fishermen, further and more sympathetic development of the characters of the fishermen and a broad reassessment of the second act. Primary research to feed into the voice and behavioural framework of the characters was also essential.