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Nitram writer Shaun Grant on creating a film featuring the events of one of the darkest chapters in Australian history

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The Stan Original movie Nitram depicts the events leading up to one of the darkest chapters in Australian history, the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, in an attempt to understand why and how this atrocity occurred.

The film’s writer, Shaun Grant, spoke to 9Entertainment about the process of making the controversial film that recounts the events leading up to the horrific story of Australia’s last mass shooting, in which 35 people were killed and 23 others were wounded in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Stream Nitram only on Stan.

“[Nitram] was written for an Australian audience in mind,” Grant said. “There’s obviously a bit of trepidation prior to the release and just a relief that it’s been received as I hoped it would’ve been received with the intentions when I first conceived it. Hopefully it resonates. Clearly, it’s not for everyone, but the people that have seen it thus far seem to be responding to it.”

Writer Shaun Grant at the AACTA Awards. (Nine)

The idea of making the film came from Grant’s time living in the US. Unlike Australia, which has had significant gun control since the events of Port Arthur, the US has had a long-running debate over gun ownership.

“America has a relationship with gun violence and gun legislation that’s quite unlike anywhere else. And it was in 2018 where I was living there and a few instances occurred. One, my wife went to our local grocery store, but she got called into work. And when she was at work, a gunman ran in and started shooting. So that was awfully close to home. And then a couple of months after that, there were two mass shootings in the space of 10 days, one in Pittsburgh and one in Thousand Oaks, which is just not that far from where I was living,” Grant recalled.

“[Nitram] was born out [of my] frustration and anger and what can I do? I can only write.”

In the film, Nitram, based on Martin Bryant (played by Caleb Landry Jones), lives with his parents (Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia) in suburban Australia in the mid-’90s. He lives a life of isolation and frustration at never fitting in. As his anger grows, he begins a slow descent into behaviour that culminates in the most heinous of acts.

Caleb Landry Jones, Essie Davis, Nitram
Caleb Landry Jones and Essie Davis in the Stan Original Film Nitram. (Stan)

The choice to never call Nitram by his real name was not only a decision by Grant to not hero mass shooters, but a creative decision reflective of the character.

“In my research, not just on Port Arthur but on mass shootings in general, there’s such similarity between the perpetrators and these common traits that I kept seeing — whether it’s anger management issues, struggling academically, a loss of a father figure or an absence of one,” he explained.

“So I was on the lookout for an umbrella term in a way for these boys, and I use the term ‘boys’ because their actions wouldn’t qualify them to be men. So, I was looking for this umbrella term and then my research come across this concept that [Nitram] was a derogatory term that was thrown at the perpetrator of Port Arthur. I went, that works. Because while everything I do, I try to be specific, but you want it to be universal so that it’s very much related to this case, but also there’s commonality. So rather than saying it was just him, I think it was all of them.”

Nitram has also been recognised with major film nominations at the 2021 AACTA Awards.

In addition to being nominated for this year’s AACTA Award for Best Film, Nitram was recognised with nominations for Best Direction for director Justin Kurzel, Best Lead Actor for Caleb Landry Jones, Best Lead Actress for Judy Davis, Best Supporting Actor for Anthony LaPaglia, Best Supporting Actress for Essie Davis and Best Original Screenplay for Grant.

Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram
Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia in the Stan Original Film Nitram. (Stan)

Grant said all the performances in Nitram are “amazing”, but it was Landry Jones’ role as Nitram that surprised him the most.

“When we first met Caleb in LA, one of the first things he said was, ‘I’m not very good at accents, by the way.’ And he has a heavy, thick Texan accent. And we’ve just gone, ‘It was going so well until that.’

“But he worked for months and months and months on it and everyone that watches the film is like, ‘He’s Texan? What?’ So for that alone, because it is one of the most difficult accents in the world to master for an actor, he was lucky he had the assistance of a wonderful dialect coach, Jen Kent.

“But the work that Caleb put in is quite astonishing. So I’m particularly proud of him. And for him to win best actor at Cannes for an Australian film, that almost never happens. It was due reward for a lot of hard work.”

The Stan Original Film Nitram is now streaming only on Stan.

Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.


The Stan Original movie Nitram depicts the events leading up to one of the darkest chapters in Australian history, the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, in an attempt to understand why and how this atrocity occurred.

The film’s writer, Shaun Grant, spoke to 9Entertainment about the process of making the controversial film that recounts the events leading up to the horrific story of Australia’s last mass shooting, in which 35 people were killed and 23 others were wounded in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Stream Nitram only on Stan.

“[Nitram] was written for an Australian audience in mind,” Grant said. “There’s obviously a bit of trepidation prior to the release and just a relief that it’s been received as I hoped it would’ve been received with the intentions when I first conceived it. Hopefully it resonates. Clearly, it’s not for everyone, but the people that have seen it thus far seem to be responding to it.”

Shaun Grant, AACTA, Nitram, Snowtown
Writer Shaun Grant at the AACTA Awards. (Nine)

The idea of making the film came from Grant’s time living in the US. Unlike Australia, which has had significant gun control since the events of Port Arthur, the US has had a long-running debate over gun ownership.

“America has a relationship with gun violence and gun legislation that’s quite unlike anywhere else. And it was in 2018 where I was living there and a few instances occurred. One, my wife went to our local grocery store, but she got called into work. And when she was at work, a gunman ran in and started shooting. So that was awfully close to home. And then a couple of months after that, there were two mass shootings in the space of 10 days, one in Pittsburgh and one in Thousand Oaks, which is just not that far from where I was living,” Grant recalled.

“[Nitram] was born out [of my] frustration and anger and what can I do? I can only write.”

In the film, Nitram, based on Martin Bryant (played by Caleb Landry Jones), lives with his parents (Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia) in suburban Australia in the mid-’90s. He lives a life of isolation and frustration at never fitting in. As his anger grows, he begins a slow descent into behaviour that culminates in the most heinous of acts.

Caleb Landry Jones, Essie Davis, Nitram
Caleb Landry Jones and Essie Davis in the Stan Original Film Nitram. (Stan)

The choice to never call Nitram by his real name was not only a decision by Grant to not hero mass shooters, but a creative decision reflective of the character.

“In my research, not just on Port Arthur but on mass shootings in general, there’s such similarity between the perpetrators and these common traits that I kept seeing — whether it’s anger management issues, struggling academically, a loss of a father figure or an absence of one,” he explained.

“So I was on the lookout for an umbrella term in a way for these boys, and I use the term ‘boys’ because their actions wouldn’t qualify them to be men. So, I was looking for this umbrella term and then my research come across this concept that [Nitram] was a derogatory term that was thrown at the perpetrator of Port Arthur. I went, that works. Because while everything I do, I try to be specific, but you want it to be universal so that it’s very much related to this case, but also there’s commonality. So rather than saying it was just him, I think it was all of them.”

Nitram has also been recognised with major film nominations at the 2021 AACTA Awards.

In addition to being nominated for this year’s AACTA Award for Best Film, Nitram was recognised with nominations for Best Direction for director Justin Kurzel, Best Lead Actor for Caleb Landry Jones, Best Lead Actress for Judy Davis, Best Supporting Actor for Anthony LaPaglia, Best Supporting Actress for Essie Davis and Best Original Screenplay for Grant.

Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram
Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia in the Stan Original Film Nitram. (Stan)

Grant said all the performances in Nitram are “amazing”, but it was Landry Jones’ role as Nitram that surprised him the most.

“When we first met Caleb in LA, one of the first things he said was, ‘I’m not very good at accents, by the way.’ And he has a heavy, thick Texan accent. And we’ve just gone, ‘It was going so well until that.’

“But he worked for months and months and months on it and everyone that watches the film is like, ‘He’s Texan? What?’ So for that alone, because it is one of the most difficult accents in the world to master for an actor, he was lucky he had the assistance of a wonderful dialect coach, Jen Kent.

“But the work that Caleb put in is quite astonishing. So I’m particularly proud of him. And for him to win best actor at Cannes for an Australian film, that almost never happens. It was due reward for a lot of hard work.”

The Stan Original Film Nitram is now streaming only on Stan.

Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.

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