According to Logie-nominated actor Rahel Romahn, stories from western Sydney aren’t told nearly enough.
Now, he’s hoping his fellow Parramatta residents will be able to see themselves reflected in his new film ‘Streets of Colour’.
Romahn recalls ‘Streets of Colour’ being brought to him by director and close friend Ronnie S. Riskalla a number of years ago, framed as an autobiographical film about his life in western Sydney in which Romahn would play the lead role.
“He’d given me a few details and I said, ‘Write the script and show it to me’,” he said.
“One year later, he did exactly that. I read the script, loved it, and said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s start this journey together’.”
The film tells the story of Terrance Hadid – a young drug dealer who loses custody of his son after being blamed for the death of his friend in a racist street fight, navigating his way to redemption before it’s too late.
Though the process of making it wasn’t easy, Romahn said it has all been worth it.
“It’s a gargantuan effort to put an independent film together, so the process was certainly difficult, but one that was extremely rewarding once we got all the footage and put it together and saw what came out of it,” he said.
Having also been filmed in western Sydney, Romahn described the film as ‘a love letter to life in the west’.
“I came here when I was about three-and-a-half as a refugee from Kurdistan, and I’ve pretty much grown up in the Parramatta area my entire life,” he said.
“For me, it was like a chapter from my own life. I recognised the area, I recognised the characters, I recognised the storylines, the adversities, the pains, the joys, the fun – all of the aspects that make western Sydney what it is, we tried to encapsulate in this film.”
The film enjoyed a successful theatrical run earlier this year, with Romahn stating that he’s seldom heard a bad word about it, making the experience all the more rewarding.
“You don’t know what to expect when you make a film like this, but I’m just absolutely flabbergasted by the wonderful response that we’ve received,” he said.
“Everyone seems to connect to this film somehow, one way or another, and that’s the beautiful thing about having a multifaceted story that encapsulates many different genres.”
Now that it’s had its digital release, Romahn said ‘Streets of Colour’ is a must-watch, whether you want insight on the area, or just a great film.
“It’s a wonderful way to get a vivid assessment of a particular part of Sydney that you don’t normally visit or go to or understand the people that are living there,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful magnifying lens into the inner workings of this part of Australia that’s just informative, and exciting, and really shows you what a beautiful, enigmatic puzzle this country is.”
Ultimately, Romahn is hoping that the success of the film will inspire more stories to be told about western Sydney – and Australia in general.
“Why wouldn’t you want to know the many different facets and aspects of a society that you’re in?,” he said.
“I’d love to learn about the inner workings of Manly, or the inner workings of the Hawkesbury River, or the people that live in the Blue Mountains, and western Sydney is just one piece of the very diverse puzzle.”
Cassidy Pearce is Parra News' entertainment journalist and beauty columnist. She is a graduate of the University of Technology Sydney.