If coming-of-age classic The Breakfast Club was a road movie set in remote Western Australia, it would be Jub Clerc's debut feature Sweet As.
"Our film has a really beautiful universal story about hope and and first crushes, dreams and reality, teenage angst and adult angst, so I think it'll mean something to everybody," the writer-director told AAP on the red carpet.
Sweet As premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival Saturday amid talk of the film securing a major distribution deal.
It follows 15-year-old Murra, who has problems at home, and is sent on a photography trip for at-risk teenagers.
Their bus trip through the Pilbara proves transformative, as they learn about friendship, first crushes, and growing up.
Actor Mark Coles Smith, who played Murra's policeman uncle, admitted he was feeling some nerves before watching his performance for the first time.
"I think Sweet As is totally sweet as, it was such a ball filming this in the Pilbara," he told AAP.
Coles Smith was also full of praise for co-star Shantae Barnes-Cowan in the lead role of Murra, saying her career would be a case of "watch this space".
"Just knowing we've got that talent, Australia gets to see young talent coming through like this on the big screen, I'm just stoked," he said.
Sweet As is the first Australian feature written and directed by an Indigenous filmmaker from Western Australia.
Clerc is a veteran of filming in the Kimberley, but Sweet As was her first time shooting in the Pilbara where she grew up.
The Nyul Nyul-Yawuru director said while the weather and the costs of remote shooting were constant challenges, the cast and crew made everything easier.
Sweet As will premiere in WA at CinefestOZ on August 26, before an international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Australian Associated Press
