Tegan Crowley and Jack Hayes.

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Writer and director James Gorter has followed up his acclaimed short film King of the Jungle with And Behold, an ambitious story of a young couple attempting to escape their fate of violence, as forces outside their control pull them into a dark crime filled underworld.

“I wanted to try to talk about ideas of fate and morality in the context of the Australian crime filled underworld. There are times I am sure when we all feel like life just pulls us into territory we don’t feel comfortable in, so I wanted to push this idea to its absolute extremes and see where it took the characters as I wrote it,” Gorter told Cinema Australia. 

And Behold features a stellar main cast of Jack Hayes (Romper Stomper) and Tegan Crowley (Plague, Lion) whose on-screen chemistry is undeniable.

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“We spent a large amount of the pre production period in auditions, I really wanted to find the perfect actors for the part to make the story feel believable. We must have had a hundred people through, but I knew as soon as Jack and Teegan had auditioned I had found the right people. They both had a natural rawness and intensity to them that is hard to find.”

The film opens with Emily (Crowley) sitting in a police station as they discuss the disappearance of Leigh (Hayes). We are then taken back two days prior as we watch the events that led up to his disappearance. The non linear style of filmmaking brings a sense of inevitability and foreboding to the story as we drift through a world of violent home invasions and clubhouses of Harley riding bikers.

And Behold is now entering the 2020 festival circuit and should be viewable nationally and internationally later this year.