Simon Luckhurst

Patrick Verrell, Tug Dumbly, Zoe Emmanuel, Michael Cinquitti, Hugh Devaney, Sean Pardy and (lying at front) Belinda Macedone.

Just before the afternoon matinee...

EXECUTIONER: You're the only one who understands how difficult it's become.

LINA: Couldn't you wear one of last season's robes?

EXECUTIONER: Not the robes. I mean the growing awareness I have that human lives are inherently valuable. The expanding sense I feel that my whole existence, and that of my race, rests on the completely erroneous assumption that by removing the live, pumping hearts of young female virgins our crops will grow better.

LINA: Couldn't you become a cart builder?

EXECUTIONER: That'd be creative, but we haven't invented the wheel yet.

Synopsis

What happens when a surgery-challenged executioner meets a high priest with a casting couch?

Credits

Cast: Jennifer Yeomans, Michael Cinquitti, Hugh Devaney, Tug Dumbly, Zoe Emmanuel, Katie Wilmott, Aimee Moffat, Sara Browne, Rowena Doyle, Bel Macedone, Sean Pardy and Patrick Verrell.

Production company: Left of Centaur Productions.

Written, produced and directed by Simon Luckhurst.

Budget

I think I raised about $900 from a subscription appeal, and I spent another $500 on stuff.

Notes on the Film

I'm not sure exactly where the idea for an Aztec period film came from. It doesn't sound like the usual sort of thing I think of. Possibly it derived from the gag about 'another liver'?

Shooting a period piece meant I had to come to terms with something new in the world of my film making- a budget. Or more accurately, raising a budget. I chose the subscriber method, and sent out letters, (this was in the days before email) to all my friends asking for small contributions. I'm pleased to say that not only did most of them remain my friends after this appeal, but many also gave generously.

I shot above the Beetroot Brothers fruit and vegetable warehouse, which was then in Redfern. I built the set out of carboard remnants and old theatre flats. Relativity Studios once again provided post production facilities. Look out for a cameo by Sara Browne, who had recently starred in Occasional Coarse Language.

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