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[Image]Based on a news report he read about a child pornography ring, Savage scripted a disturbingly direct look at such perversion. Created for Australian cable TV, 2005’s Stained stands as one of the director’s proudest achievements. “When I learned that there is such an organized trade (involving children), I was very angry, so I became determined to expose it. Of course, one filmmaker can do very little, but creating awareness of a problem is a step towards addressing it.” In order to get beneath the surface of the controversial subject matter, Savage envisioned a decidedly different approach to the subject matter. “I asked myself: What kind of person gets involved in such a vile world? The answer was: Your next-door neighbor. What do they lose of themselves in order to profit? Everything, of course. How do their actions impact on others? Totally.”
Realizing that “the precise details of the crimes were not important”, Savage centered instead on presenting a corrupt character piece, looking at pedophilia and its impact from the personal and the individual. The story is all suggestion: a man and his brother who may be trafficers in white slaves, a sinister fathers desperate to locate his daughter, a collection of little girls cowering in the corner of a dirty shed, a final act confrontation that seems both coincidental and non-conclusive. Outrageous depictions of cruelty and sexual contact were instantly negated since, as Savage puts it, “I didn’t need to show the direct abuse. Instead, I chose to focus on the details surrounding it. True to his genre roots, Savage suggests that such “literal representations would unbalance the narrative. I wanted the audience to imagine the rest.”
What’s on the screen, however, is devastating enough. As he proposes, Stained is like lifting the lid off of everyday suburbia and discovering a shit-strewn cesspool thriving underneath. None of the characters here appear archetypal or stereotypical, their motivations being more money than sexually motivated. The individuals responsible for keeping the kidnapped kids aren’t drooling fiends with their pants round their ankles. Instead, they go about their business, emptying piss buckets and providing food like some sort of jaundiced jailers. Because he doesn’t spell everything out in embarrassing black and white terms, Savage is able to situate his sinister circumstances directly under you skin. “People will use their imaginations if you give them strong triggers,” the director argues. “Often it is the best way to go. Every scene requires serious consideration. The point of attack is most important.”