Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Kriv Stenders, Madman Entertainment.
A captivating Australian television drama where the backdrop is not your average local school: it’s a war zone.
It’s riveting and achieves what it sets out to do: engaging, assertive, though confronting, not to mention a specific attitude. The message is powerful and the storyline is more than just conspiracy: the turmoil found in a boy’s high school in Sydney’s south-west.
The Principal, on DVD, sees Alex Dimitriades playing the title role as Martin Bashir.
Unless you put a stop to bad behavior, that habit will continue so Bashir has his work cut out for him. He was formerly deputy principal at a prestigious girls school and with his first appointment as principal he’s ruffled a few feathers, obviously.
His deputy Ursula Bright had her eye on the top job. Others are also put offside with his proposed radical reforms that are met with cynicism by blasé staff.
Even the students predict that he won’t survive in his new role. However, he proves them all wrong and gradually gets the respect of the school police liaison officer, Kellie (Mirrah Foulkes).
Boxdale High is a tough, multicultural school where Bashir’s best efforts to implement change are brought to a grinding halt after a student is found dead on the school grounds.
Award-winning Dimitriades (The Heartbreak Kid, Head On, Ghost Ship) and Aden Young (Rectify), as Detective Adam Billic, are brilliant. This group of actors is fresh-faced, but there’s a no holds barred streak in their character acting.
