Netflix has dropped a hard-hitting and powerful new series into its UK catalogue.
Stateless follows the lives of four strangers whose lives collide at an immigration detention center in the middle of the Australian outback.
An airline hostess on the run from a cult, an Afghan refugee and his family fleeing persecution, a young father escaping a dead-end job and a bureaucrat running out of time to contain a national scandal.
Those four people couldn’t be any different - but they share a common ground in trying to survive their experiences in a dangerous world.
What’s the story?
The series follows main character Sofie, as an Australian citizen struggling with mental health issues who is detained after fleeing a cult.
As with many Netflix series, this is based on a true story.
Stateless loosely chronicles the life of Cornelia Rau, an Australian-German woman who, fifteen years ago, was unlawfully detained for a period of ten months between 2004 and 2005 as part of the Australian Government's mandatory detention program.
Like her on-screen version, Rau was also a flight attendant running from a cult.
In the series we meet Sofie pre-detention centre - as a career woman who gets sucked into a cult before escaping her family to join them.
She lies about who she is and gets caught by the police before ending up in the detention centre.
Meanwhile Ameer is simply a man trying to look for a better life for his family. After fleeing Afghanistan to make a life in Australia, he gets put into prison.
Guard Cam is a normal working class guy trying to make ends meet who is sold the idea of working at the detention centre without actually knowing what really happens there.
And lastly, bureaucrat Clare is sent to Barton Detention Centre to contain a big national scandal, naively thinking that she can simply fix the problem.
Co-creator Cate Blanchett has spoken about how the series has been a six-year labour of love for her.
She said: "Stateless has been a passion project of mine and Elise McCredie and Tony Ayres for probably about six years now.
"The story of Stateless is it is four intersecting narratives. You have got an air stewardess who has a passion for dancing.
"You have an Afghani family who are fleeing from persecution.
"A scrap metal worker who is wanting to have a better, more economically secure life for his young family.
"And you have a female bureaucrat who has hit the political glass ceiling who wants to move up.
"Their fates, their ambitions and their hopes and dreams all converge upon an on-shore detention centre in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere."
Who stars in it?
As well as Blanchett, who also plays the role of Pat, the six-part limited series stars a number of well known faces.
The Handmaid's Tale's Yvonne Strahovski takes the role of flight attendant Sofie Werner.
Fayssal Bazzi plays Afghan refugee Ameer, while Jai Courtney, from Suicide Squad, is prison guard Cam Sandford who is uncomfortable with the conditons he sees at work.
Other well known faces include Dominic West (The Affair) as Gordon, Asher Keddie (The Cry) as Claire Kowitz, and Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home) as Margot.
Elsewhere Soraya Heidari appears as Mina, Rachel House as Harriet, Kate Box as Janice, Clarence Ryan as Sully, Claude Jabbour as Farid, Rose Riley as Sharee, Helana Sawires as Rosna, and Darren Gilshenan as Brian Ashworth.
Anything else?
The programme’s co-creators hope that it will inspire others to examine the immigration procedures in play in countries such as Australia.
Blanchett, along with Tony Ayres, and Elise McCredie, said in a Netflix press release: “Stateless has been a labour of love for many years and we could not be more thrilled that it will reach an international audience on Netflix.
“The issues addressed in the series have universal resonance but have been cloaked in silence and muddied by fear and misinformation.
“Our hope is that Stateless will generate a global conversation around our systems of border protection and how our humanity has been affected by them.”
Stateless is available to stream on Netflix now.
