“Set in the near future, Cleverman is a startlingly original drama rooted in Aboriginal mythology. The series depicts a deeply conflicted and anxious society, fearful of a minority group, endowed with extraordinary physical traits, living among them. One young man – The Cleverman – struggles with his own power and the responsibility to unite this divided world, but he must first overcome a deep estrangement with his older brother.”
“I have a huge love of superheroes and comics. It got me thinking about creating something cultural that my young son could connect to on a superhero basis,” said Ryan Griffen, Concept Originator. “I wanted to bring something Aboriginal, Indigenous, to that world. As the son of a light-skinned Aboriginal man and a light-skinned Aboriginal woman, it was important for me that my son had a cultural superhero that he could look up to as a young Aboriginal person… something he could connect to that was also entertaining.”
Directed by Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell who are both Indigenous Australians; will be screening on the ABC in mid-2016 (and in the US on Sundance), the exhilarating, dystopic TV series crafts an X-Men-like fantasy world grounded in Australian Indigenous peoples’ history and mythology. It also stars an 80 percent Indigenous cast.
