Perth laneways and underground causeways, as well as wide open spaces which surround the city, are now streaming through TVs and laptops around the globe with sci-fi thriller Otherlife on Netflix.

Watch the trailer:

Jessica De Gouw as Ren Credit: Photo by Natalija Brunovs

Starring West Australians Jessica De Gouw (Arrow, These Final Hours) and T.J. Power (The Little Death, Eat Pray Love, Offspring) alongside Thomas Cocquerel (Red Dog: True Blue, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken), award-winning director Ben C. Lucas exploring themes of the intrusion of virtual and augmented reality as young Ren grapples with partner Sam over how to use a drug they invented that induces time-compressed virtual realities.

Ben commented on why he chose Perth as his location saying,

“Perth has such a diversity of design, it pretty much had everything we needed.I pushed to shoot the film in Perth as it’s where I shot my first feature Wasted on the Young, and, put simply, it’s a great city to shoot in. A lot of people think of Western Australia as deserts and natural landscapes, but Perth itself offers so much more, even in a metropolitan sense, and we exploited all of it.”

Jessica experienced a new side of Perth, despite calling it her hometown and admired Ben and Director of Photography, Dan Freene ACS, on their cunning creativity.

“They created a whole new Perth basically giving it a new identity with a really cool mix of new, futuristic spaces set against an urban world. It’s a very cool combination that I’ve never seen – or even knew – of Perth,” said Jessica.

Get an inside look at Otherlife filming in Perth:

Otherlife, which was produced by Ticket to Ride, See Pictures and WBMC, was purchased by Netflix after it screened at Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and CinefestOZ in 2017.  Having the film launch all around the world on the same day was a new experience for the filmmakers.  Producer Aidan O’Bryan said,

“It’s been really exciting to see the film being well received and to see comments on Twitter from people watching it in Turkey and Australia and the US and Brazil and Kazakhstan all at the same time.”

The Hollywood Reporter calls the film “A stylish piece of sci-fi pulp fiction made with a sense of scale that belies its indie budget” proves that high production value can be achieved with the right team on board and savvy location selection.

Otherlife was produced with the assistance of Screenwest and Lotterywest.

Wasted on the Young was developed and produced under Screenwest’s West Coast Visions initiative.