Guy Pearce (left) and Vincent Miller in Inside, directed by Australian writer-director Charles Williams. Photo: Supplied.
“We’re all trying to grow beyond what we were born into, all trying to escape the prison of ourselves – the prison that protects us and isolates us.” Self-evident words, though poignant, from award-winning Australian writer-director Charles Williams.
We have been waiting for Williams, best known for winning the 2018 Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes for All These Creatures, to make his feature debut. He does that meticulously through Inside, a hard-hitting, engrossing prison drama. It is not for the faint-hearted. Williams’ personal experiences profoundly influence this narrative.
His directorial launch plunges us into the intricate complexities of human limitations and rehabilitation with compassion and empathy. We are invited to delve into the lives of those who have caused harm and the intricate web of emotions that surrounds their experiences. Here is virtuosity that’s unvarnished, ruthless, memorable.
It’s set within the confines of a jail when an inmate nearing release manipulates a guilt-ridden juvenile into murdering Australia’s most despised criminal. After being transferred from juvenile to adult prison, Mel Blight (Vincent Miller, Plum, Wild Dogs) is taken under the wing of both Mark Shepard (Cosmo Jarvis, Shōgun, It Is in Us All), Australia’s most despised criminal, and Warren Murfett (Guy Pearce, The Brutalist, The King’s Speech), a soon-to-be-paroled inmate.
Blight is forced to grow up amid a tempest of tragedies; Murfett, who has spent 15 years in prison and wants his freedom, is defined by a self-centredness so adolescent it is almost charming; and Shepard is notorious both inside and outside the prison system.
As a transformative paternal triangle grows between them, we see that even the worst of men have a little bit of good inside that will be their undoing. Inside is a pragmatic feature with excruciatingly fine performances.
Having grown up in a world where violence, alcoholism, mental illness, drug abuse and all the resulting chaos were normalised, Williams also saw people searching for an elusive way out, and this has continued to reverberate for him.
Ancestry lends first-hand acumen to Inside. Williams explains his family background, saying he has “always been interested in inherited damage”. He grew up in a volatile environment, with family members in and out of prison, including one who took their life inside. So, how responsible are we for our transgressions and what mitigates that?
Williams explored similar thematic material in All These Creatures, and in many ways, Inside is an extrapolation of that film.
“Here it is again anchored in a paternal relationship but expands that to include proxy father figures and potential future selves,” Williams says.
“What I’m interested in conveying isn’t just damaged and mentally ill characters and their intergenerational impacts, but can a soul be better than how it has been moulded?
“For me, prison is the ideal environment to explore this in feature length, as this is where the most damaged of us inevitably end up. It’s where introspection is used as the primary mechanism for salvation and where the most twisted of natures are expected to rewire themselves.
“I believe at heart this is universal. We’re all trying to grow beyond what we were born into, all trying to escape the prison of ourselves – the prison that protects us and isolates us.”
In a literal sense, this is not a prison film about the corruption of authority or plans for escape. It’s more about prisons – those forced upon us and those we make for ourselves. Inside shows the human side – how victims can become perpetrators and perpetrators victims, and whether there is any hope for either to free themselves.
”What has been essential to this portrayal is that the film doesn’t excuse perpetrators or add to our country’s long history of criminal glorification,” Williams says. ”It is about offering us a compassionate reflection of what is, to some extent, inside us all.”
Focusing on the psychological and moral challenges faced by inmates, Inside explores the grey areas of right and wrong, and the impact of trauma and suffering on personal development. Delving deep into the lives of its characters, it presents an intricate narrative of affinity, reintegration and individual connection.
Allow Inside to be where we get to understand some difficult people around us in a way that is humanistic and almost spiritual, while still being a visceral, cinematic experience. It’s about complicated people, yet still moving and oddly transporting. A convincing crime thriller, let this be a film that makes you feel less alone growing up.
Inside, directed by Charles Williams and distributed by Bonsai Films, is screening in cinemas.
