For the Dear Leader is a short film inspired by the 2003 Pong Su incident, when a group of North Koreans tried to smuggle heroin into Australia on a cargo ship called the Pong Su. The crew used a small rubber boat to reach shore at Boggaley Creek, a rough, rocky stretch off the Great Ocean Road known for its dangerous tides. One of the smugglers drowned, and his body was later found hidden under a thick layer of kelp, along with packets of heroin scattered along the coast.
The film takes place in the early hours of the morning, just after those events, when the protagonist, Craig, stumbles upon the drugs and the body. I came up with the idea after watching old news reports about the incident. A federal law enforcement officer joked in one interview that they hadn’t been able to recover all the heroin adding that there might be “a few more Mustangs driving around the coast” as a result. That throwaway comment stuck with me, and I thought the idea of a naive local finding a stash of drugs and trying to sell it could make for a great story.
We shot the film in 2024 a couple of days in Apollo Bay and at the actual site of the incident at Boggaley Creek. The remaining days were filmed in Cranbourne and Coburg, so we really covered a lot of ground. We had an absolutely wonderful crew, and I’m forever grateful to the HODs on this film.
Adrian Dias, our producer and editor, showed incredible resilience and professionalism. He believed in the project from day one and was always great to bounce ideas off and talk logistics with.
Darcy Michell, our DOP and colourist, is one of the most talented people I’ve come across in film. He balances technical skill and logistical awareness with creative instinct, and his style complemented mine perfectly. That collaboration led to some beautiful shots — my favourite being the one of Craig standing alone after being left on the side of the road.
Danaë Grieef, our costume and production designer, was so generous, hardworking, and just a great presence to have on set.
And then there’s Matt Webb and Lachlan Wilson, my two best mates. I grew up with them, and now I’m making films with them, which is really special to me. Matt was the first AD and made my job so much easier. Doing it with someone you trust, and who knows you better than you know yourself, was such a good experience. He’s got a much more easygoing, bumbly personality than me, which balanced out my sometimes grumpy demeanour perfectly.
Lachlan, who composed the score, absolutely knocked it out of the park. The music captures dread, sadness, and fear so well, and that final song is something I’m really proud of. It was all us old Paradian boys Lachlan, Matt Webb, myself, and Max Miskas jamming and spitballing ideas and guitar riffs until we found it.
The wonderful cast was led by Matt Higgs and Sabrina Rault, who I’d also worked with on my student film Hilltown. They worked so well together. I love to rehearse scenes a lot, and seeing them come up with their own ideas and different ways of approaching a performance is always a treat.
Sabrina’s performance in this film gives it so much heart and emotional weight. She balances being a caring partner with also being the voice of reason, and she does it beautifully. Stacy is by far my favourite character in the film, and a lot of that comes down to Sabrina’s performance.
Matt Higgs is always a gun. He had a lot to take on in this film, and watching his growth from Hilltown, to Once Ethereal, to For the Dear Leader, and now his latest film Model, has been such a treat. He just keeps getting better, and I’m really looking forward to seeing him in bigger feature roles in the future.
Making a film — if you’re fair dinkum about it — is a massive commitment. For the Dear Leader was my entire 2024. I worked two jobs early in the year — one at a chicken coop factory by day and at a bar by night — all while taking pre-production meetings on my breaks. It nearly drove me insane, but it was a kind of good insanity. I knew I had a goal, and I was going to achieve it or die trying.
I remember looking at myself in the mirror, not unlike Craig in the film, weighing up my next move while listening to the same Charles Bukowski poem, Go All the Way, with that weird inspirational music on YouTube. I suppose the film became a collection of the thoughts and feelings I had at the time while writing it.
It’s been an absolute emotional rollercoaster making this film — something I’ll never regret. It’s given me the confidence to face all of life’s challenges “with the attitude.” Can’t be any harder than making a film
The film had a private screening in March at the westgarth in northcote with family and friends of the cast and crew before being premiered at monsterfest 2025. It is now screening at North Bellarine film festival on the 15th of November.
-Tom Green