Radhesh Balasubramanian, a high school student in Sydney’s affluent Bondi, betrays close relationships and his own self worth in order to claw his way up the social ladder. Year of production 2025 Length 11' CountryAustralia Shooting Format Digital Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Dialogue English Director Rhavin Banda Producers Forest Lin, Will Suen, Rhavin Banda Associate Producer Mathew Panayiotou Writer Rhavin Banda Cinematographer Benjamin Powell Editors Will Suen, Cristobal Olguin Edit Consultant Shiyan Zheng Production Designer Keya Cawood Costume DesignerNatalie Ling Production Manager TJ Martin Makeup & Hair Designer Connie Duff Visual Effects Artists Paco Ortiz, Sebastian Reategui, Joseph Smallman, Reuben Tirkey VFX Assistants Vincent Nguyen, Thomas Morphett, Krishan Mistry Graphic Designers Joe Parker-Rees, Neesha Chockalingam Sound Designers Josh Wermut, John Kassab, Zachary Casella, Georgia Collins, Rory Steuart Composer Dylan Thomas Colourist Baro Lee Assistant Editor Marcio Souza Cast Rhavin Banda, Clarke Parkinson, Nelson Blattman, Benn Spillane, Yan Shurunov, Sareena Barnes, Mathilde Anglade, Emma Cocks, Claudia Chen, Bronte Guggisberg, Madeleine Jurd, Juliet Lochrin
Festival selections London Short Film Festival 2025, UK - World Premiere BAFICI - Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente 2025, Argentina Director's Statement Writing BONDI BOY was my way of reckoning with the racism that I exhibited as a teenager - towards my best friend, my mother, and myself. We shot the majority of the film in 2018, but only completed it in 2025. I’d love to say this was by design... but truthfully, it took this long to get to the finish line because I was so afraid of laying my insecurities so bare and unvarnished on the screen that I never wanted to stop tinkering with it. As arduous as this process was, though, I think the film benefited from it. Shooting with these memories so fresh gave the footage immediacy and authenticity… but having the time, the years, to process it all in the edit afforded me more perspective on the material. The film ended up being less a portrait of my high school experience, and almost more a portrait of how I processed it in the years following. It was also a difficult film from a production standpoint. Featuring all kinds of brands, famous personalities - even existing music - would be considered ridiculously ambitious for any debut short to clear. But somehow, we got there… Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Avan Jogia and others expressed support for the approach we were trying to take, and allowed us to have their likenesses appear in key scenes in the film. And of course, Radiohead. We were stunned when they liked our film enough to allow us to feature “Let Down”, one of my favourite tracks of theirs, as a centrepiece in the film. BONDI BOY is of course set in Bondi, Sydney, yet doesn't include one shot of our famous beach. The sun isn't warm and inviting... it's harsh and stark, highlights blown out and clipping. I hoped to reveal a harsher, dirtier side of the Bondi I knew growing up... reflecting the racist, sexist underbelly of the cheery, friendly (and whitewashed) Aussie image we’re known for internationally. Sydney may be diverse, but it's nowhere near as inclusive as we hope it is. Our story unfolds intimately and loosely, with a focus on daily rituals to convey character and motivation. We wanted to weave our narrative thread so lightly it almost creeps up on you. Chantal Akerman, Andrew Haigh and Kelly Reichardt’s works were key points of reference. We felt this was the best approach to capture the subtle internalisation and reciprocation of racial and sexual biases that Radhesh succumbs to as the school term goes by. With BONDI BOY, not only I - but audiences too - are able to look back at moments from my childhood with distance and maturity… and hopefully come away with a more empathetic understanding of how our society doesn’t just victimise minorities, but turns them into victimisers, against each other - and themselves.
