Screen: Family drama is also a knockout boxing film

 A young Italian-Australian finds himself torn between a woman, his family and a passion for boxing. Miguel Gonzalez talked to the creators of Two Fists One Heart.

Two Fists One Heart is director Shawn Seet’s first feature. His body of work includes Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, The Strip, All Saints and The Secret Life of Us, among others. In spite of those years of experience and success in television, the transition to feature film was not a completely smooth ride. “There’s so much pigeon-holing happening, so much snobbery. I don’t want to sound bitter, but it was a little hard for me to make the transition, and it shouldn’t have been. People are always looking for the next young filmmaker, and if you’ve been doing television for a while, you’re branded as a ‘TV director.”

The opportunity to helm this film came when writer Rai Fazio (who also plays the main antagonist, ) saw his work in Dangerous and was impressed by the show’s level of reality and energy. Fazio asked producer David Elfick (Newsfront, Rabbit Proof Fence) to approach Seet, with whom Elfick had worked previously. “I wasn’t there right from the start of development, but the script resonated very deeply with me, particularly the father-son story.”