Mate

Viewer Advice: Contains suicide themes.

The first Australian film to win the International Grand Prix at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Mate is a relentless encounter with self-destruction.

In George-Alex Nagle’s acclaimed drama, set over a weekend in an insular working-class outpost of Western Sydney, a local no-hoper must reconnect with a reserved schoolboy after a long time apart. But the attempt to re-establish the relationship is threatened by the man’s self-sabotaging nature. Working from a simple premise, Nagle’s complex coming-of-age short tackles masculinity, maturity and the challenges of growth head-on.