Made for $1500, this Australian film takes a swipe at greedy landlords

Made for $1500, About The Soufflé takes a swipe at greedy landlords If you had told Connor van Helsing when he was homeless that one day he would star in a movie about his experience he wouldn't have believed you. "It's indescribable," he says, as he reflects on the times he struggled to find a place to sleep. His experiences are the basis of the film About the Soufflé, which will have its world premiere this week at the Darwin International Film Festival. Having been homeless three times, things got pretty grim for van Helsing, who once inspected a rental that turned out to be a shipping container. "It's a crisis, that's for sure," van Helsing says. "With the complete lack of rental rights, [landlords] are leasing anything and not taking care of it at all, just to rob you at the end of your tenancy, anyway." Homelessness isn't just about sleeping rough. Van Helsing has also endured extended stretches of insecure couch-surfing, relying on the generosity of mates; an increasingly common occurrence that masks the extent of the crisis. "It's not just about being at the bottom of the barrel," van Helsing adds. "It's way more common than you might think." Sobering numbers The stats back van Helsing up. Forget getting a foothold on the property ladder; even just renting is increasingly out of reach for many Australians. A new report by the NT Council of Social Services (NTCSS) shows at the end of 2025, the Northern Territory had the second highest average rent in the country behind NSW. The report also found that of the rentals listed in the NT, none were affordable for a single person on minimum wage, JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, the Disability Support or Age Pension. It's why emerging filmmaker Jacob Hazeldine, 25, made About the Soufflé. Shot for an astonishing $1500 and relying on a volunteer village of mostly non-professionals, his debut feature draws on the lived experiences of van Helsing — who co-wrote the film — and their inner circle, including van Helsing's co-star, Jesse Milne. "I was pretty confronted by the toll homelessness was having on them," Hazeldine says. "I saw it as a potential avenue to create a circuit breaker in this cycle that Connor was in. To allow him some agency, with the added benefit of creating a film that provides insight into a lot of real stuff." Hazeldine previously worked as a project officer at the NTCSS. "We were representing bodies that look after people who are going through housing difficulties," he says. "It's increasingly the norm. Not something that raises eyebrows, which is pretty sad." About the Soufflé was a game-changer for van Helsing. He plays Connor, a character not unlike himself who's sleeping in a garage on a suburban property in Darwin. Connor's rudely awoken one morning by his live-in landlord (played by Michael van Berkel, who also did a crash course in sound-recording for the film) who evicts him without notice. This crisis sparks a funny and occasionally freaky odyssey, as Connor hunts for a place to live, a gig to pay the rent (reluctantly) and some dope to smoke (less reluctantly). Deckchairs and dollars Shot predominantly in black and white by cinematographer Mitch Drescher, About the Soufflé embraces both visual and thematic nods towards Breathless, the similarly edgy and inventive debut feature of French critic-turned-filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard that was also shot on the hop with a small handheld camera. The name is a knowing wink to the French title of Godard's film, À bout de souffle. "I was exposed to Breathless at film school, learning how they made it," Hazeldine says. "These new, pocket-sized cameras we have access to are really democratising filmmaking. We're seeing the parallels between what we're doing and the French New Wave, leveraging it to create something sincere and authentic." That authenticity, and the film's fearlessness in tackling one of Australia's most pressing crises, is a breath of fresh air, and one that caught the attention of the DIFF programmers. Hazeldine couldn't believe it when they called, wanting to screen About the Soufflé at Darwin's iconic Deckchair Cinema. "I'm really proud of the film, and I'm so happy that we're able to premiere it at such a great venue with an understanding audience," Hazeldine says. "It's so validating, that we created something of merit, after the culmination of so much work and with such little ingress, having tried to get money from Screen Australia and Screen Territory and got nowhere." That necessitated some nifty solutions, including Hazeldine composing the film's hectic score on a Nintendo Switch. "There's a $15 app which lets you emulate all of these Korg synthesizers," he reveals. "So that's how we built the sonic landscape." Movies matter Van Helsing reckons the rise of unique Australian cinematic voices that make-do-and-mend is at least in part because they insist on doing it their own way without interference. "There's a burgeoning anti-tech, anti-corporation sentiment among a lot of youngsters that makes them shy away from the mainstream, even if they could access it," he says. "There's just such a rejection of these big faceless entities. Like, why bring that into yourself? You've got mates, a camera and skills. Just f****ng do it." Hazeldine agrees: "Looking back on it, this film has no right to exist. It's a Jenga tower held together with hopes and dreams where every element had to fall into place. We were shooting for two and a half weeks straight, and if something fell through at any moment, it would have cascaded and destroyed the whole thing." About the Soufflé was too important a story to tell for it to fall flat at the final hurdle, in a town Hazeldine suggests cares more about accommodating the American military complex than those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. "We've got a cultural schism up here, with a really radical right-wing invasion, over the last few years, bulldozing significant bushland to build all these suburbs and gerrymander our electorates," Hazeldine says. "There's not a lot of love for homeless people and those living in poverty. "It's cooked." About the Soufflé screens at the Darwin International Film Festival on September 11.