By Luke Voogt
A retired Highton lawyer’s movie starring Oscar-nominated actress Rachel Griffiths is finally set to premiere at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, six years after production began.
Grant Fraser’s dramatised documentary Strangers to the World tells the story of Etty Hillesum and Franz Jaegerstaetter during World War II.
“I’m delighted that we’ve ultimately got there and that the film festival has decided to include us – it’s marvellous,” the 73-year-old said.
Crowdfunded with the Australian Cultural Fund, the documentary features Griffiths as Dutch woman Hillesum, who died at Auschwitz with her family rather than leaving them to survive in hiding.
Fellow Australian actor Oscar Redding plays Jaegerstaetter, an Austrian farmer guillotined for refusing to fight with the Nazis.
“This film is about two people, who stood their ground at great personal cost by weighing the demands of conscience against the most profound longings of their humanity,” Fraser said.
Fraser, also a poet, actor, musician, teacher and writer, told the Independent in 2014 he was lucky to have Griffiths on board.
“These people have fascinating stories and, as Rachel says, they’ve just got to be told,” he said at the time.
“She could charge a fortune but she’s working at base rate.”
Griffiths finished her segment in 2016 but financial constraints delayed the completion of other filming until 2018, Grant said yesterday.
Getting funding from Australian statutory bodies was “terrifically difficult” due to the film’s lack of Australian content, despite its local cast, he explained.
“Fortunately, I’m lucky to have some very fine and successful friends who provided the funding for us.”
But “after seven or eight months of post-production” Fraser also struggled to find a forum the film’s release, he said.
“I’m new to the film industry and no-one really knows who am, so doors weren’t really opening.”
That all changed when members of the Dutch and Austrian embassies organised a screening in Canberra.
“A lot of people were in tears [especially] the Dutch and Austrian folk who had lived in the 40s.”
The film, based on the letters of Jaegerstaetter and Hillseum, focused on times “when each character’s humanity was most confused and tested”, Fraser said.
“[They were] the times when they [were] called to account to those they most love.”
Strangers to the World premiers on June 30. More information: mdff.org.au.
