BARRACUDA
DRAMA / SPORT
AUSTRALIA
2016
BARRACUDA is an Australian drama miniseries, first broadcast on ABC TV starting 10 July 2016. The series is based on Barracuda, the 2013 novel by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, which explores a brutal clash of cultures, dreams and expectations and the relentless demands that are placed upon young athletes, their families, friends, schools and coaches. BARRACUDA consists of 4 episodes of 1 hour.
STORY: Set from 1996, Danny Kelly (Elias Anton) is a talented swimmer who attends a prestigious Melbourne private school on a sporting scholarship. Working class, half Greek and half Irish, he is the target of harassment from the privileged students. Danny yearns to win swimming gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. He is taken under the wing of highly regarded coach Frank Torma and develops a friendship/rivalry with teammate Martin Taylor which inspires Danny to become a world record holder.
GAY COUPLE STORYLINE: Danny (Elias Anton) lives and breathes swimming, and his coach at the new school, Hungarian-born Frank Torma, really believes he could be the very best and make it to the Olympics one day. After initially being treated badly by the other boys in the swim team, after he proves his talent and worth, they begin to accept him, and he builds a strong bond with team captain Martin (Ben Kindon). Danny subtly starts to develop feelings for Martin. Martin who is from a wealthy, high-achieving family seems to reciprocate these feelings in a restrained way. There are few physical scenes of affection between Danny and Martin .When Martin invites Danny to a family weekend away, the two boys dream about the future swimming successes they’ll have together and then both masturbate at the same time while staying in the same room. Martin realises his swimming career may be coming to an end and tries to move on from it by getting a girlfriend to focus his attentions instead.
Danny (Elias Anton) & Martin (Ben Kindon)
ELIAS ANTON (2016), June 5, 1998, Melbourne, Australia
BEN KINDON (2016), ?, 1995, Canberra, Australia
SPECIAL: Danny is not always likeable, but his journey with Martin shows some important things about class, sexuality and expectations. Danny has a supportive family who give all they can to make him thrive and be the best he can be, whereas Martin’s family put massive pressure on him to succeed and make their disappointment know when he fails to deliver. Danny as a working-class boy makes his family proud and they want to do whatever they can to support him in his goals, while Martin struggles to meet his family’s expectation – Martin must be the very best otherwise they will let him know he is a failure, which is why he is so hesitant to be with Danny as a partner after he fails at swimming, so instead he turns his focus to fitting his family’s image by getting a nice girlfriend.
AWARDS: 'BARRACUDA' 1 win & 4 nominations
7.8 IMDB
