The Parisian (2015)

The Parisian is an explosive and moving story that explores the relationships of a modern day Australian Lebanese Muslim family in suburban Sydney. The film was based on and created in Western Sydney - a region that has very little accessible arts funding. It's a region that is consistently portrayed in media, film and literature as one dimensional, violent and dangerous. There are limited avenues for the communities to tell their own stories and to create their own alternative representations. Our intention was to tell a new Australian story, that could not be labelled as 'ethnic' or separate to the Australian culture. We sought to continue the dialogue of new Australian storytelling that does not need to explain it's ethnicity over it's humanity. Like Western Sydney, Muslims and Arab Australians are portrayed through a negative sense in the Australian media. in this sense, we wanted to take all of these perspectives and present a story that is honest and true to the real to the Arab Australian Muslim culture living in Western Sydney today.