SHARKO

Genre: Documentary Drama

Duration: 100 min, 60 min, 52 min

Production: 2021

Producer: Luke Graham, Jonathan Page

Executive Producer: Jonathan Shteinman

Director: Luke Graham  

Writer: Luke Graham

Cast: Mark Graham, Graham Lowe

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Sales Agent: Bonsai Films

Distributor: Pivot Pictures

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Development:

Screen Queensland

Arts Queensland

Gladstone Regional Council

Flying Arts

The Solid State

The Post Lounge

Widely regarded one of the greatest Rugby League players ever, kiwi hard-man Mark Graham was feared off and on the field, though little knew the real man or the destruction behind his success. Sharko, portrays an intimate look at the life of a father, a son and the cost of greatness.

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Sharko is a feature-length participatory documentary drama in the tradition of THE IMPOSTER (2012) and STORIES WE TELL (2013) about rugby league legend Mark Graham’s personal and professional life told through the skewed perspective of his filmmaker son, Luke Graham.

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Deemed one of the most inspirational and feared footballers to grace the game, SHARKO is a universal story about a failed father, a distant son, generational patterns and family grief. It is also a very Australian story about how men were raised to be hyper-masculine, and the importance of sport, how it defines us as a nation.

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Featuring appearances from Graham Lowe, Wayne Bennett, Wally Lewis, family archives and recreations, as well as footage of a career spanning three continents, Sharko will show us how to overcome the past in an honest, humanising and touching portrait about New Zealand’s greatest Rugby League player... ever.