# Stateless (2020)

> Four strangers, including a fleeing flight attendant and an Afghan refugee, are locked together in an Australian desert detention centre where their pasts and the system holding them collide.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/75874

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Tony Ayres, Cate Blanchett, Elise McCredie
- Network: ABC TV
- Cast: Yvonne Strahovski, Asher Keddie, Jai Courtney, Fayssal Bazzi, Marta Dusseldorp, Cate Blanchett, Dominic West, Darren Gilshenan
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878488/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, melancholic, claustrophobic, harrowing, sincere

## What critics say

Audiences rate the miniseries positively for its gripping immigration-detention drama and strong ensemble performances.

## Synopsis

Stateless (2020) is an Australian limited series created by Tony Ayres, Cate Blanchett and Elise McCredie, produced for ABC TV. Across six fifty-minute episodes it follows four strangers stranded in an immigration detention centre in the Australian desert: Sofie Werner (Yvonne Strahovski), a flight attendant trying to escape a suburban cult, and Ameer (Fayssal Bazzi), an Afghan refugee fleeing persecution, whose lives collide with a young father, Cam Sandford (Jai Courtney), desperate to leave a dead-end job, and a bureaucrat, Gordon Masters (Dominic West), caught in a national scandal. Cate Blanchett also appears as Pat Masters, and Asher Keddie plays Clare Kowitz. The engine of the story is escape and survival: each character wants a way out, and every attempt to get free runs into the blank indifference of a system that processes people as paperwork. The story is told through multiple perspectives, with threads moving between the detention compound and the outside world. Based on true events, the drama is tense and grounded, with a melancholic, claustrophobic register and a strong sense of injustice. Fans of The Wire, Orange Is the New Black and Chernobyl will find resonance in its institutional critique and ensemble moral complexity.

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