Stateless (Netflix Australia) S01: B+

This is story about migration, a family of refugees looking for asylum in Australia, a woman escaping a cult, a new security guard starting at this camps where they held people looking for asylum in the country. All of this characters merge at one of this camps where Clare Kowitz (played by Asher Keddie) is also starting her job running the place over and evaluating the detainees in order to see if they have a valid reason to enter the country. She faces the bureaucracy, the flaws of the system, she's determined to do a good job in order to keep it and hopefully getting a higher position in a better place. But soon she discovers that the way to get to where she wants to go is buy ruining the chances of others, of getting to that place they want to go.

The Handmaids Tale's Yvonne Strahhovski plays Sofie Werner an Australian woman with some schizophrenia that escaped a cult, that somehow tried to erase her personality. The leaders of that cult are played by Cate Blanchett and Dominic West. This series was inspired by real life events as in protest of the very existence of this places that are almost like concentration camps.

Ameer (played by Fayssal Bazzi) escaped Afghanistan with his family, but were victims of human traffickers, who only stole their money without helping them get a boat to Australia. With the help of another victim they find this smugglers again and steal their money, with that they manage to pay the trip to freedom. Only in separate boats, Ameer knows nothing of his wife and two children when he arrives to this camp.

And there is also Cam (played by Jai Courtney) a new security guard at the facility that has a battle of conscience between doing his job or doing what's right. With a wife two kids to support he has the pressure of doing his job in order to keep it. His sister is an activist protesting outside the gates, she won't do his job any easier.

The story is strong and the whole world can relate too, regardless of the side of the fence you are on. This camp maybe is nothing to what we've been hearing about the USA camps along the Mexico's border. Mexico probably has similar facilities along the Guatemala's border.

For me personally Ameer's story is the one that captivate me, but it was probably Sofie's story the one that inspired this mini series. Regardless if I didn't find it that captivating Yvonne has an extraordinary performance as Sofie. Dominic West shines as Gordon Masters leader of the cult that Sofie's running away from. Him and Blanchett's parts are smaller but they do help understand where Sofie comes from. They estranged her from her family, feeding that side of her that resented them, by doing that their job was much more easier, gaining their trust and money.

But again Ameer's story is the one that made my chest hurt, just trying to imagine the whole horror they endure, and they believe it's better than the horror they live everyday at their home towns.

The series has this feeling between getting totally engaged by it, but also this feeling that something is still missing. Is just six episodes long and the first four I felt they just needed a little push to make it better. The final two episodes did gave that to me. Again that performance of Yvonne is amazing, but still her story was not strong enough, maybe the editing didn't help, or maybe we always wanted more drama when there wasn't more drama, maybe Ameer and his family were much more scene stealers, than I give them credit for.

There's also a fun fact, Cate Blanchett is credited as creator of the show, but upon checking that out her credit says Based on an idea by I found that funny, I'm sure out there is a writer mad about this credit. Overall this is a good mini series and with just six episodes it won't demand much of your time.