Director Luke Wissell’s latest project is not for the faint of heart. With A Stone’s Throw, the Grounded filmmaker has crafted a 10-minute short – filmed entirely in South Australia – that will leave audiences wondering how they’d tackle the impossibly difficult moral dilemma faced by the characters.
After a rock thrown from an overpass kills a truck driver, teenage schoolgirl Hannah runs from the scene and is hit by a car. Her parents, Isaac and Jo, have to make a decision: create a false alibi to protect their daughter, or tell the truth and let her face the consequences?
Wissell and co-writer Ben Crisp spectacularly juxtapose the preferred approaches of the two parents, with Jo believing they as parents are responsible for their child’s actions and they should cover for her, and Isaac believing the truth should be told – even if that means Hannah has to face uncertain, likely unpleasant consequences. What would you do in the same circumstances?
A Stone’s Throw, therefore, raises an ethical question that philosophers, academics and communities in general have wrestled with for centuries: when is it ok to lie? Immanuel Kant famously believed that lying was always wrong. Plato, on the other hand, commended the “noble lie”. Then there are those who take a nuanced view like Sissela Bok, who argue it depends on the circumstances – but in any case, the consequences need to be considered.
If the moral ambiguity around lying wasn’t enough to draw you in, the complicated family relationships in A Stone’s Throw will keep you glued to the screen.