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Firebite

A First Nations vampire thriller
AMC+
by
ABR Arts 16 December 2021

Firebite

A First Nations vampire thriller
AMC+
by
ABR Arts 16 December 2021
Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) and Tyson (Rob Collins) in Firebite (photograph by Ian Routledge/AMC+)
Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) and Tyson (Rob Collins) in Firebite (photograph by Ian Routledge/AMC+)

Eleven vials of smallpox virus were transported to Sydney on the First Fleet by Surgeon John White1. In the crucible of a filmmaker’s mind, this historical fact is forged into fantasy, the vials transmuted into eleven vampires, let loose to suck the lifeblood out of the local people. When that filmmaker is Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country, Samson and Delilah), this monstrous cargo becomes a metaphor to explore the atrocities of colonialism and their emotional sequelae, all wrapped in the idiom of genre. This is Firebite, an Aboriginal vampire thriller television series, co-created by Thornton and Brendan Fletcher (Mad Bastards) and co-directed by Thornton, Fletcher, and Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man).

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