Every day at 5pm Andrew, a middle-aged man working a white-collar job in a community legal centre, drives home through Melbourne’s suburbs. The long commute affords him time to phone in on his ailing mother and his wife, and occasionally offer a lift home to a younger colleague, David. Over a year, their small talk gives way to a warm friendship and open conversation, incrementally revealing their lives. Like many couples, Andrew and his wife have had their ups and downs. Their decision not to have children was “a philosophical choice” that neither regrets. The docu-fiction is based on the director’s shared commutes and conversations with a lawyer colleague.
“The precise dialogue was certainly not scripted, but the shape that it took definitely was scripted, if you can call it that. When I met Andrew, we found out we lived near each other and he would start driving me home, and this is when our intergenerational friendship grew. He would make these calls to his wife and his mother. I conceived that we’d shoot incrementally, but I knew where it was going in terms of the overall arc. I’d work with Andrew and make sure he was comfortable with everything we were going to traverse. There was no rehearsal. We left the film very open.” (David Easteal)
