Kwinana landscape for new film

Kwinana has provided the backdrop for a thrilling feature film, Pinch, set to be released in November.

WA Filmmaker Jeff Asselin shot scenes for his debut full-length movie at Perth Motorplex, the Kwinana industrial strip and a landfill site, with footage also filmed in Mandurah and Cockburn.

He said the area provided the perfect setting for his coming-of-age crime drama.

“Locations are everything when it comes to making films,” he said.

“They are another character.”

Asselin and his crew spent seven weeks filming the story which follows Tommy, a light-fingered teen living in industrial suburbia, struggling in the shadow of his mother’s desperate need for an organ donor.

When Tommy skips school to take a job at a second-hand car yard, he soon uncovers a front for a local crime syndicate.

Convinced he can buy his mother a second chance at life, he schemes to steal a large drug haul but soon discovers life sinking from naive penny pinching into the abyss of major crime.

Asselin said the film was loosely based on true event, inspired by his own upbringing.

“It’s a really simple story – it comes from my childhood, kids I used to know,” he said.

“It’s a culmination of stories from people I associated with back in the day.

“There’s a lot of heart in this film.

“It’s about what you would do and how hard you would fight for your family.

“It’s a story of survival.”

Asselin said the low-budget film would attract a wide audience.

“It’s edgy but I think it is going to resonate with all the battlers out there,” he said.

“And we’re all battlers – everyone is doing it tough.

“I hope people get behind it.

“I love taking my audience on an emotional rollercoaster.”