AustLit

'‘Stateless’ is timeless. Although numerous characters, incidents and official policies are clearly “inspired by true events”, as the opening credits note, the ABC’s probing drama about Australia’s mandatory detention regime is not framed by specific dates or governments. Using a bleak detention centre in outback South Australia as the nexus for our ongoing national obsession with border protection, the show focuses on a secured zone where stasis is a weapon: refugee claims are not processed and conditions are designed to wear down detainees. One newcomer sights a man – catatonically hunched over, clutching a suitcase – and is told that’s what seven years without hope looks like.' (Introduction)