West, the second film greenlit under the Australian FilmCommission's new low-budget initiative IndiVision, is scheduled to startproduction in Sydney next week.

The first draft of the film waswritten by its writer/director Daniel Krige about 20 years ago when he was just16 years of age.

The film stars young actorsNathan Phillips, whose credits include Wolf Creek, and Khan Chittenden, who recently finished thefirst IndiVision project The Caterpillar Wish.

It's billed as anunflinching look at the struggles experienced and aggression felt by many youngpeople. Krige calls it a story of hope and has set it in what he calls the"twilight zone" between childhood and adulthood when the choices made have abig impact on the future.

"Every filmmaker has theirbaby and West is mine," says Krige, who notes that there is a level ofhonesty in his debut script that he could probably not capture now. "It was myfirst experience of writing and has come in and out of the drawer."

Sydney-based Palace Films isattached as distributor. No sales agent is signed, which is unusual for apublicly funded Australian film, but not unusual for IndiVision to date.

Producers Anne Robinson andMatt Reeder have been on the project for about four years and, like Krige, arefirst-timers. Robert Connolly (The Monkey's Mask, The Boys) isacting as a consultant producer.

A facilities deal frompost-production company Cutting Edge should help the film look a lot biggerthan its budget of $754,000 (A$1m) or so. The project was a 2004 participant inAustralia's financing market SPAAmart.

Krige has directed shortfilms, worked as an actor, has many television credits as a writer, and hasalso written film scripts for director Alex Proyas and producer Bryan Brown.Michael Dorman, who was recently named as one of Screen International'sstars of tomorrow for Australia, is also in the cast. He has just finished a leadingman role in Suburban Mayhem.

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