About | SHARKO | Coming 2024

SHARKO is a father and son documentary about New Zealand's greatest rugby league player ever.

SHARKO is a feature-length participatory documentary drama in the tradition of THE IMPOSTER (2012) and STORIES WE TELL (2013) about rugby league legend Mark Graham’s personal and professional life told through the skewed perspective of his filmmaker son, Luke Graham.

Deemed one of the most inspirational and feared footballers to grace the game, SHARKO is a universal story about a father, a son, generational patterns and family grief. It is also a very Australian story about how men were raised to be hyper-masculine, and the importance of sport, how it defines us as a nation.

Featuring family archives and recreations, as well as footage of a career spanning three continents, Sharko will show us how to overcome the past in an honest, humanising and touching portrait about New Zealand’s greatest Rugby League player... ever.

MARK GRAHAM

Deemed Mark Graham is a rugby league footballer and coach. A back-rower and former captain of the New Zealand national rugby league team, he has been named as the greatest player the country has produced in the century from 1907 to 2006 and the only New Zealander to be inducted to the Australia’s National Rugby League Hall of Fame.

Respected throughout the league world as a tough, skilful forward, Mark Graham played 26 tests for New Zealand from 1977, when he was 21, until 1988. He was an inspirational captain of the Kiwis and formed a particularly good relationship with coach Graham Lowe during a successful period for the Kiwis.

He played 142 first grade matches in the Australian competition for Brisbane Norths and North Sydney and later turned successfully to coaching in the NRL for North Queensland Cowboys, then Auckland Warriors.

LUKE GRAHAM

Luke Graham is son of rugby league great, Mark Graham who ventured into a career in filmmaking, far from the pitch. He started his career producing films such as Bella, Spoonman and Last Roll of the Dice where his shorts played at over one hundred international festivals and included awards from; Tropfest, Flickerfest, Paris International Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival.

Luke produced his first micro budget independent feature film in 2010 called Braille. It was sold internationally to Japan, USA and South Africa. In 2016 Luke created the multi award winning feature film, Broke an international festival gem and one of Australia's theatrical success stories of the year. Broke went onto be one of most profitable rugby league stories made in Australia. It was also distributed in New Zealand, UK, USA, Canada, Germany & South Africa.