It was the global financial crisis that inspired filmmaker John Duigan to write his latest film. The director, whose last Australian film was Sirens back in 1993, found himself reading an increasing number of articles about the impact of the economic downturn and how the rise in the cost of university fees and living expenses had seen a number of students picking up work in the sex industry.
Careless Love is the story of Linh (Nammi Le), a social anthropology student at Sydney University who secretly works part-time as an escort to help pay her family's mortgage. As her worlds begin to collide, Linh struggles to compartmentalise.
The script spent three years in development, with Duigan keen to fast track the filmmaking process.
"I was attached to a couple of films overseas for four to five years," he says. "And when one of them fell through for the umpteenth time, I decided I wanted to make my next film quickly."
The film was financed by a small group of investors and produced on what Duigan will only refer to as "quite a modest budget." The six week shoot took place in Sydney early last year, with the camera (a RED) occasionally overheating and breaking down in the summer heat.
Careless Love features an array of established and up and coming faces – including Peter O'Brien, Eamon Farren (Red Dog) and Hugo Johnstone-Burt (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries).
"I've often blended the new with the more experienced," Duigan says. "One thing I noticed when I came back to Australia was what a great new pool of actors there are to draw from."
Even Duigan himself has a cameo as Linh's lecturer at university. "I have a tendency towards self indulgence in my acting," he confesses with a laugh. "I woudn't give myself anything too testing. I've had cameos in my previous films – but only when the actors got sick. But with this, I was a minor academic when I was doing my masters so I thought I could play the role."
The director flies to the UK at the end of the week to continue working on his new project, an English-set comedy called Ego about the rivalry between two middle-aged actors who attended drama school together in their youth. One re-voices a character in a Japanese crime series after enjoying some success in his youth as a romantic lead, while the other plays a B-grade James Bond type.
Careless Love is in selected cinemas now, with more screens opening at the end of the month.
Andrew Hazzard and Nammi Le in Careless Love